
y -^ 



^^ 



/ 


r^ 


% 


\ 



■P 


i 


9p 


% 






^V-: '■^; 




Ik.-' 



w^ 



.>~pc: 




o 



o 



-3 o 

< O 

< ^ 

U, C 
-I n^ 




s 
< 



o 

c 
m 



O 

X 

u 



< 

a, 

X 
H 



San Francisco's Horror 

OF 

EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 

TERRIBLE DEVASTATION AND 
HEART-RENDING SCENES 

IMMENSE LOSS OF LIFE AND HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS 
OF PROPERTY DESTROYED 

THE MOST APPALLING DISASTER 
OF MODERN TIMES 

CONTAINING 

A VIVID DESCRIPTION OF THIS OVERWHELMING CALAMITY- 
SUDDENNESS OF THE BLOW— GREAT NUMBER OF 
VICTIMS— FALL OF GREAT BUILDINGS— THOU- 
SANDS DRIVEN FROM THEIR HOMES 

THIS UNPARALLELED CATASTROPHE 

LEAVES SAN FRANCISCO A HEAP OF SMOULDERING RUINS- 
FIERCE FLAMES SWEEP THE DOOMED CITY 
BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS IN ASHES 

TO WHICH IS ADDED 

GRAPHIC ACCOUNTS OF THE ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS AND MANY 

OTHER VOLCANOES, EXPLAINING THE CAUSES OF 

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AND EARTHQUAKES 



COMPILED FROM STORIES TOLD BY EYE WITNESSES OF THESE FRIGHTFUL SCENES 

By JAMES RUSSEL WILSON, the Well-known Author 



Embellished with a Great Number of Superb Photographic Views taken 
before and after the Terrible Calamity. 



NATIONAL PUBLISHING CO. 

235 TO 243 SOUTH AMERICAN STREET 

PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



•. \^/ % 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
TwoCoDles RfCfiived 

MAY 22 1906 

Copyright Entry 



CUVSS 
' ^ r.c 



COPY B 



.,.e«0 ACCO«0,.0 TO ACT O. CONa«.SS, ,. THE VE*R 19U. B. 

GEORGE W. BERTRON 

,„. O.P.CE OP TH. UB.-.,*H O. CO.0-,eSS. AT W.SH,..TO.. 0. c . u s. 







^ 



INTRODUCTION. 

CHIVERING, but sure in its rock-ribbed grasp, the hand of Destruction 
O has reached up through the thin crust of the world and, waving a 
giant torch of quenchless flame, swept from her proud seat at the edge of 
the sunset sea the splendid city of the Golden Gate. 

But yesterday the inbound mariner saw from his lookout her jeweled 
hills, aglow with life. As his prow cleaved the clear green of the Pacific 
and bore him on to the matchless harbor he marked the towers and columns, 
the serried ranks of homes and the great ships cradled at this door of com- 

merce. , i i i. 

To-day he sees a shroud of smoke, outspread above a charred skeleton. 
A great wail of distress is borne across the waters which lap these shores 
of desolation. From out the black playground of Death rise huge phan- 
tom shapes of Hunger and Thirst. A mass of smouldering embers tell 
grimly of Nature's dread orgies. 

Three terrible minutes have vanquished the work of years. 

A shiver of fevered pain has swept along the spine of Earth, and 

San Francisco is ashes. j j j 

Out of the curling smoke that rises like incense for the dead and 

destroyed two pictures are formed. _ ^ 

One is a scene of horror beyond the power of words to depict. It is 
a picture of men and women being roused from dreams of the dawn to the 
sternest reality of Night-Night aflame with huge torches of consuming 
greed eating their way unimpeded through the vitals of human effort. 

There is nothing to turn to. The very ground, upon which all has 
been based, is rising and falling like the waves of the ocean beyond and 
the shrieks of the pierced and pinned mingle with the weeping of the 
homeless and childless and fatherless. 

Nature has plotted well. She has cut the arte.ies of protection agamst 



Tl INTRODUCTION 

fire, and the blazing demon leaps and dances through walls and high-built 

battlements of stone as though they were paper. 

So awful is the task that Earth itself still trembles at the thought of 
all that is. A sick sun looks down on the ruins. 

The other picture is different. 

It is a picture of the human heart, often called cold and cheerless m 
these days — the human heart of the whole world melted by these same 
flames into one vast mass of charity. 

The first gasp of horror is not spent before a helping hand is stretched 
out to the city of desolation. Every village in the land hastens to do its 
share. The call of the hungry and homeless is answered almost before it is 
heard. No purse remains unopened. No effort lags. 

A traveler has fallen by the sea. The world is a Good Samaritan, 
stooping to bind his wounds, and with willing hands lifting him to start 
again on his journey. 

Out of these ruins rises the sun of human brotherhood, and, though 
it be soon clouded in the renewed rage for place and gain, the world will 
be brighter and better because of its having shone. 

San Francisco shall not have died in vain. There will be a resurrec- 
tion of Charity. 

And there should be* a resurrection of something else. 

Through this ghastly veil of loss and suffering we should be able to 
see a sign. It can be seen at other times, but such times as these seem to 
make it shine out more clearly. 

What is all our planning and striving for temporal gain? What is 
all our rushing and rising, our seeking and obtaining, our boasting and 
pride in the accomplishments of our own hands? 

Do we not allow these insignificant things to blind us to greater truths? 
Can we not learn from these ruins something of value, something that will 
in a measure make up for the loss and destruction ? 

Yes, if we will. 

We can learn that it is not well to tempt Nature. Men have always 
known that the ground upon which San Francisco was built was unstable. 
They have always known there was a possibility of just what has happened. 

We can learn something of value as to our own stature in the universe. 



INTRODUCTION "^ 

It would seem we needed a lesson of the sort in times when man and man's 
work are given such large consideration, and God and God's worK so 

little, comparatively. . 

It is blasphemy to assume that such a disaster as this is a visitation o 
the Almighty. Bui it is sanity of the best sort to believe that it is a good 
illustration of the weakness of man when unaided by the countless gifts 

of the Creator. 

And no nation needs to learn this more than our own. 

We have been so favored by every wind that blows that we have 
grown insolently proud in many an instance. We have contracted a habit 
of thinking we are always right and others always wrong when not agree- 

ing with us. , i i i^ 

We need a great deal more humility of spirit than we have, and while 
we do not believe such a disaster as this is "sent" to awaken us to our 
lack it is well that we should get out of it all the good there may be m it^ 
'Xhe beginning of San Francisco's late greatness was the discovery of 
.old in California. In a mad rush for the precious stuff men disregarded 
all caution as to the nature of the country into which their desire for 
fortune led them, and though repeatedly warned by Nature herself, per- 
sisted in placing their estimate above hers. 

In a thousand ways we are lured on by gold. If we could only see 
above all other sorts of gold the everlasting gold of good and make that the 
goal of our seeking, how much safer and happier we might be! 

How often are we lured on by the gleam of the Golden Gate in the 
distance, only to find, when we have come to the place where we thought 
it was, a mass of smouldering ruins ! 

Where San Francisco lies prone in its ashes, and looks up to its deso- 
lated hills will arise a new and splendid city. Yet when it has been builded 
and the bitterness of the present time forgotten, then will abide a sense of 
loss The old San Francisco is no more, and never can it be recalled save 
as a memory. The local color, atmosphere, that which might be termed 
temperament, vanished with the clustered houses, as rich in tradition as the 
ancient missions in whose cloisters worshiped the Spanish padre "before 

the Gringo came." 

While many Americans knew San Francisco, more of them knew 



^"> INTRODUCTION 

Paris, London and Rome. To most of them this fair citv of their own 
land was as a place distant and foreign. But such as entered it, and 
learned of its people and their ways, learned to love it. 

Unique it was, almost grotesque perhaps, certainly defiant of precedent 
in its customs, its pleasures, its manner of living. One who had .stood 
on an eminence there, beholding a vision of ocean, bay and circling moun- 
tams, had seen the billowing fog banks roll in through the Golden Gate 
crowning the abrupt slopes of Saucelito until in the sky there seemed a 
range of fantastic mountains, in their phantom valleys shifting lakes that 
changed tints with the sun. remembered ever after a panorama beautiful 
and appeahng. This picture no fury of rocking- earth mav destroy. 

But the scenic impressiveness only prepared the mind for appreciation 
of that part of San Francisco which has been swept into h^^tory and 
which hardly may be described. It was a very essence, a subtle difference 
not so much m mental attitude and mbral perception and warmth of fellow- 
sh,p_although all of these quickly might be discerned-as in the form of 
the expressions these qualities had taken. 

One of San Francisco's charms was in its defiance of precedent There 
were hills to be conquered, and San Francisco's expanding traffic hurled 
Itself at the face of them. It went up and up, with no thought of finding 
a way around. So it happened that on some of the streets the steepness 
was too great for horses. In the centre there are cable roads, and on 
either side of the rails grass grows through the cobbles. The earlier 
structures on the level were put together in haste. For the most part 
they remained essentially unchanged until they fell with a crash True 
they had become stained by time, unkempt, dwarfed by new neighbors but 
nobody desired to efface them. 

Away from the business section houses appeared on the various hills, 
perched precariously near the brink; houses reached by long flights of steps 
and grown over with roses. The bathing fogs touched them with gray 
Moss grew on their roofs. In the little, lofty yards calla lilies bloomed 
with the profusion of weeds. But inside these homes what hospitality- as '' 
inside the rickety restaurants down toward the water front there wa= 
cneer. 

The "two bit" dinner of the Italian or Mexican chef in New York 



INTRODUCTION 5x 

would have cost ten times as much. Those whom they drew into comrade- 
ship, no matter from what rank in Bohemia or of PhiUstines astray, were 
made acquainted with a pervasive equaUty not witnessed elsewhere in 

civilization. 

The natural beauty of the site, the quaintness of the commercial and 
social development of which it became the centre, attracted the poet and the 
artist It incited them to paint the attractions and to sing the praises of 
their chosen habitat. For the outside world, who cared? Surely not they. 
They lived in a world of their own, and it was good enough. 

Now and then some member of the group went to the larger world 
outside, and perchance found fame, but the heart of the wanderer turned 
back to' the gray and shadowy city. Here Stevenson paused before gomg 
to the islands to die, and made his home in a rookery. Happy and content 
was he as he sat for hours in Portsmouth Square, where now a monument 
to his memory has been jarred askew. Here young Norris gathered the 
inspiration for his books. Here, too, in an older day, Bret Harte did his 
best work and Mark Twain found his real beginning. 

The people of 'San Francisco know the shock of calamity, but they do 
not know defeat. They will have their city again. It cannot be the old 
city nor suggestive of the old. Disaster seems to have swept away the 
barriers that afforded pleasing isolation. The new San Francisco will be 
as other prosperous cities, its distinctiveness only that which springs from 
its site as an outpost overlooking the Pacific. 




Amm 





MAGNIFICENT STATUE, erected bybequest of late Peter Donahue. 
Battery, Bush and Market Sts. 




c 




(U 




a 




3 




a 




o 




B 




<u 




-C 




H 


ci 














• 


n 










rr 




-C 








1m 


>, 


rt 


rrt 


UJ 


w 



-£ -5 



^ 2 

o 



UJ = 

< <- 

C § 
CO -2 



Z 

o 

z 




H 
O 
a, 

Q 
> 

DC 
QC 
Ijj 
Lju 

o 
z 

D 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER I. 
Awful Havoc by Earthquake and Fire in San Erancisco • • 33 

CHAPTER II. 
San Francisco's Fine Residences in Flames and Whole Busi- 
ness Section Destroyed 46 

CHAPTER III. 
Woman Refugee and Other Eye-Witnesses Relate Their 

Thrilling Experiences 65 

CHAPTER IV. 
Pitiful Scenes Where Once Stood a Great City ...... 80 

CHAPTER V. 
The Doomed Metropolis a Mass of Smoldering Ruins ... 92 

CHAPTER VI. 
Heroism of Brave Men Fighting for Life 103 

CHAPTER VII. 
Famine and Pestilence Follow Earthquake and Fire 117 

CHAPTER VIII. 
President Calls for Aid and Congress Makes a Generous 

Appropriation 130 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Queen City of the Pacific Coast Paralyzed with Terror 

and Distress 144 

CHAPTER X. 
Homeless Refugees Relate Tales of Agonizing Horror . . . 157 

CHAPTER XL 
Chinatown Secrets Laid Bare by Disaster ......... 173 

XI 



j^jj CONTENTS 



PAGE 

CHAPTER XII. 
Narrative of a Victim Surrounded by a Frantic Multitude 182 

CHAPTER Xni. 
Cremating the Dead and Feeding tlie Living I94 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Unsheltered Thousands Drenched by Rain in Parks ... 308 

CHAPTER XV. 
Harrowing Incidents Related by Survivors 229 

CHAPTER XVI. 
North American Volcanoes. Famous Mount Shasta. North- 
ern Arizona. Volcanic Glass. Craters on the Pacific 
Coast 241 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Ridge of Panama and the Andes. The Great Canyon. Cali- 
fornia and Utah. Yellowstone Park. Mexico and South 
America ^55 

CHAPTER XVIII. , 
Amazing Phenomena Connected with Volcanoes and Earth- 
quakes. Fiery Explosions and Mountains in Convul- 
sions. Changes in the Surface of the Earth. By Sir 
John F. W. Herschel, Bart 273 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Great Volcanic Eruptions in Many Parts of the World. Story 
of Mount Etna. Convulsions in South America and Else- 
where 29^ 

CHAPTER XX. 
Eruption of Etna in the Year 1865. Mutual Dependence 
of all Terrestrial Phenomena. Sea Coast Line of Vol- 
canoes. The Pacific " Circle of Fire " 310 



CONTENTS xni 

PAGfi 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Torrents of Steam Escaping From Craters. Gases Produced 
by the Decomposition of Sea Water. Hypotheses as to 
the Origin of Eruption. Growth of Volcanoes .... 329 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Various Kinds of Lava. Beautiful Cave in Scotland. Crev- 
ices in Volcanoes. Snow Under Burning Dust .... 349 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Volcanic Projectiles. Explosions in Ashes. Subordinate 
Volcanoes- Mountains Reduced to Dust. Flashes and 
Flames Proceeding from Volcanoes 365 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Volcanic Thermal Springs. Geysers. Springs in New Zea- 
land. Craters of Carbonic Acid 379 

APPENDIX 385 




T> 




C 




C3 




CO 




C 




O 








U) 








> 




o 




;— 


, 


cx 


to 




^ 




n> 




u. 


-l—> 


<.\> 


> 


^ 


K- 


a 




(/^ 


Oj 


t:5 


; — ; 


ClJ 


'■i^ 


C/J 




(/) 


C 




Tt 


TD 


U. 




4—1 


>. 






M— ' 




<L» 


C 


CD 


03 




C/J 


-»— > 




(/i 


Tl 




<73 


-4— ' 


> 


o 


-1—1 




c/j 


^ 


i-^- 


> 


rr^ 




-C 


rt 






CU 


r 


x: 


o 


-(— ' 




V- 


o 


o 


<.-i 


H— 


(/) 








^ 


toll 


c 


c 


CJ 

^ 


jn 


uu 


-4—1 

o 






c 


o 


cv; 




C/5 




C 




"-* 




CD 




C 




OJ 




<.J 




C/J 






as 



Ho 






CD (U 
O w 
05 a> 



■?S 



o •- 




BIRD'S-EYE ViEV^ 
SHOWING THK BUSINESS DISTRICT, NOB HILL, CLIFF HOUSE, SAN ] 




IAN FRANCISCO 

sCO BAY, GOLDEN GATE AND PACIFIC OCEAN IN THE DISTANCE. 




O 



■i-i 

00 



a 
< 

<v 

a 

^ CT 

-" S-i 

O lU 

-2 ^ 
X *_> 

<P 12 

« a; 



= O 

! ^ 



^R < 



as 

K ^ 
5° O 

PI 9 "-^ 

"?£ W 

a*" I— I 

■s.S >--. 

a r> 

a<) K 
V O 

w 

H 



CD <p 




-^c.-^-CBWSSr'' 







be 
o 



C/1 



5 be 

»- c 

: '% 

I ^ 

1 i 

o a) 

£ 3 



- rd 



a a 



0<; 









(U 




u 








> 




(U 




Vh 




o 




in 








rSi 


i 

rt 


H 


<u 




JS 


d 


O 


u 

CA 






+j 


u 


CI 

m 


C 


X 


cU 


0) 


Vh 


- 


Ph 


"3 




4-t 


G 


0) 

Si 




o 


- nJ 




-^ 3 


o 


Oh -5 


Ol 


J-, 


o 


oj rt 




rt ^ 


X5 


0.£ 


,^ 


4-) 


:z; 


c 


> 


dJ 


^ 


-^ 


-n 




M) 


o 




o 


a 






03 


as 


X 


H"S 


H 


"3 m 

a ^ 


cci 


s- o 


< 


o o 

72 


W 


d '^ 




?.9 


- 




u^ 


a<: 
< 




>i'^ 




J2 (D 

> 


2 


CO i 


1— 1 


O m 




22 


^ 


Ss 


U 




< 


s_ 


P=^ 


c — 


u 




SAN FRANCISCO CATASTROPHE— LOOKING WEST ON MARKET 
STREET FROM KEARNEY— THIRD AND GEARY STS. 



CHAPTER I. 

AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE IN 
SAN FRANCISCO. 

SWIFT as a thunderbolt from a clear sky the appalling calamity fell 
which devastated the fairest portion of California. Smitten by the 
hand of God, doubly visited by the awful vong-eance of earthquake and of 
fire, the Queen City of the Pacilic lay prostrate on the earth gashed by 
yawning- fissures and still heaving as if in pain, beneath a sky atlame with 
the reflection of an uncontrollable conflagration. 

The population, awakened at the dawn of day by the trembling of 
the earth — followed by an appalling shock as the foundations of the world 
gave way — rushing, such as were not crushed beneath their own roofs, 
half clad to the streets to And walls tottering, streets yawning and fire 
spreading — the population of San Francisco feared the day of doom had 
come. 

Panic seized the people as they realized that thousands of lives might 
be lost. 

Many square miles in the city's heart were wrecked. Two hundred 
million dollars' worth of property was lost. Terror reigned, even above 
sorrow for the dead and the injured and grief for destroyed homes and 
ruined property, for there is no human sensation like that of feeling the 
earth no longer stable beneath the feet. 

No one was sure that the tremors might not at an}- moment swell again 
into annihilating shocks. Thousands were fleeing from the city by ever}^ 
means of egress remaining open. ]\Iartial law was declared and troops 
under General Funston were in control. Streets in ever\- part of town were 
filled with wreckage, while in the business section south of Market Street 
the devastation is complete. 

Excited crowds watched the flames devour skyscrapers which the day 
before were the pride of the Pacific Coast. The water mains were broker. 
and little water was available. On every side was heard the explosion of 
dynamite, employed to stay the devouring march of the flames ; the roar of 

S— S. F. <^ 



34 AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 

the conflagration pervaded every part of the city and now and again there 

seemed to mingle with it the moan of the travaihng earth. 

An earthquake lasting possibly not many seconds, but the most terrific 
ever known on this coast, shook the city shortly after five o'clock Wednes- 
day morning, April i8, 1906. Soon after the first shock fires broke out in 
several places. Then the discovery was made that the v/ater mains had 
been so injured that there were no streams available. In instances the 
firehouses had been so damaged that the apparatus could not be gotten out, 
although it would have been practically useless. 

Such was the confusion at this time that no complete list of the dead 
could be made. The only wire running out of the city was through the 
Ferry Building, at the foot of Market Street, which still stood, although 
its high tower leaned at a dangerous angle. 

REGULAR TROOPS ON GUARD, 

All traffic ceased. Regular troops patroled the streets, with orders to 
shoot any one found looting. Two hundred thousand persons were home- 
less and great crowds had gathered in the parks. Either they had lost their 
homes or were afraid to go back to their houses. Some brought their 
household goods with them. Mayor Schmitz gave orders that all of these 
be fed. 

Over a scene of desolation unspeakable there hovered a pall of smoke. 
The district from Eighth Street to the water front, embracing many of 
the large hotels and lodging houses, and including the south side of Market 
Street to Folsom, was a blackened waste, swept by fire. Within it stood the 
Grant, Parrott and Flood Buildings, the first housing the largest depart- 
ment store of the city. 

Close to them was the Academy of Sciences. 

The Claus Spreckels Building, a towering steeple-like structure of 
eighteen stories, resisted the earthquake, but became a victim of the flames. 
The Call Building, a three-story structure in the rear, was gone. 

Just across the alley lo the south, the Winchester, an eight-story hotel 
of cheap construction, but with a veneer of brick, burned. It was this 
that proved the undoing of the Spreckels Building, although it was attacked 
from the west also. The Examiner Building, across Third from the 



AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTFIQUAKE AND FIRE 35 

Spreckels, collapsed from the shock of the earthquake. It was a flimsy 
edifice, and from the time of its erection regarded as dangerous. 

FLED FROM FLAMES. 

Across Market from the Examiner, and diagonally across from the 
vSpreckels Building, stood the Chronicle. It was a dozen stories in height, 
but escaped the earthquake only to become a prey to the flames. Still 
farther down Market Street the Palace Hotel was destroyed, but all the 
guests fled long before the danger had become acute. 

The hotel was thirty years old and was built by the late Senator 
Sharon. The Crocker Building, opposite, escaped with small damage. The 
Telegraph Building, in which was the office of the Postal Telegraph Co., 
had to be deserted when portions of it collapsed and the roar of the flames 
was near. 

Below this point the elements showed no favors. On both sides of 
Market Street they made a clean sweep. Mission, Howard and Folsom, 
running parallel to Market, were devastated to the water front. Along the 
water front itself there was a fringe of fire for many blocks, the wharfs at 
Green and Broadway Streets being destroyed. Between this point and the 
other end of the bay the blaze w^as a stretch of at least a mile and a half 
long. 

The Ferry Building was spared the flames by reason of a broad area 
paved with basalt that cuts it off from the nearest buildings. The Phelan 
Building, which had been for years the headquarters of the army, and 
which was one of the most valuable properties in the city, burned like 
tinder. 

The same was true of many others that had been regarded as fireproof, 
although not of modern construction. It was true also of some of the 
newer structures — the Rialto, for instance, which stood at the corner of 
Third and Mission, and was generally accepted as the finest specimen of 
business architecture. 

There were several additional shocks, none severe, but grimly sugges- 
tive. The jar of explosions and of falling walls led the frightened people 
to imagine more shocks than really occurred, but the earth appeared to 
tremble at intervals, and it was considered unsafe to be high up in any 
building. 



36 AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 

Rumors came in from surrounding towns of damage and deaths, San 
Jose being down for twenty fatalities and Santa Cruz for a smaller number. 

The roar of the flames could be heard even on the hills which were 
out of the danger zone. Here many thousands congregated and viewed 
the scene. Great sheets of flame rose high in the heavens, or rushed down 
narrow streets, joining midway between the sidewalks. 

A portion of the City Hall, which cost over $6,000,000. collapsed, the 
roof sliding into the court3-ard, and smaller towers tumbling down. The 
great dome was moved, but did not fall. The new post ofliice, one of the 
finest in the United States, was badly shattered, as was the Mint, near it. 
The latter building was also on fire and was doomed. 

The Valencia Hotel, a four-stor}-- wooden building, sank into the 
basement, a pile of splintered timbers, under which were pinned many 
persons. The basement was full of water and some of the helpless victims 
were drowned. 

Wliile the big wholesale grocery establishment of Wellman, Peck & 
Co. was on fire from cellar to roof, the heat was so oppressive that pas- 
sengers from the ferryboats were obliged to keep close to the water's edge 
in order to get past the burning stnicture. 

The prisoners confined in the city prison on the fifth floor of the Hall 
of Justice were transferred in irons to the basement of the structure. Later 
they were removed to the Broadway jail. One of the first orders issued by 
Qiief of Police Dinan was to close every saloon in the city. This step was 
taken to prevent drink-crazed men from rioting. 

DRIVEN MAD BY SCENES. 

A. W. Hussey came to the station at the Hall of Justice and told how, 
at the direction of a policeman whom he did not know, but whose star num- 
ber he gave as 615, he had cut the arteries in the wrists of a man pinioned 
under timbers at the St. Katherine Hotel. According to the statement 
made by Hussey, the man was begging to be killed, and the policeman shot 
.^.t him, but his aim was defective and the bullet went wn'de of the mark. 
The ofiicer then handed Hussey a knife, with instructions to cut the veins 
in the suffering man's wrists, and Hussey obeyed orders. 

Chief of Police Dinan directed that Hussey be locked up. There was 



AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 87 

no opportunity to investigate his story, but the police believe that the awful 
calamity rendered him insane, and that the incident reported to them had no 
existence excepting in his imagination. 

Mayor Schmitz sent out orders that physical necessities of the sufferers 
be first attended to. Goldberg, Bowen & Co. sent word that they had 
placed all of their stores at the disposal of the city, including the provisions 
contained therein. 

The fire sv^-ept down the streets so rapidly that it was almost impossible 
to save anything in its way. It reached the Grand Opera House on Mission 
Street and in a moment had burned through the roof. From the opera 
house the fire leaped from building to building, leveling them to the ground 
in quick succession. 

Thousands of people watched the flames licking the stone walls of the 
Spreckels Building. At first no impression was made, but suddenly there 
was a cracking of glass and an entrance was effected. The inner furnish- 
ings of the fourth floor were the first to go. Then, as if by magic, smoke 
issued from the top of the dome. This was followed by a most spectacular 
illumination. The round windows of the dome shone like so many full 
moons ; then long waving streamers of flames burst forth. 

The tall and slender structure, which had withstood the forces of the 
earth, appeared doomed to fall before the fire. But after a time the light 
grew less intense, and the flames, finding nothing to consume, died out, 
leaving the building standing, but completely gutted. 

The fifteenth floor was devoted to a restaurant, the sixteenth and 
seventeenth occupied by the Denver Club. 

WOMEN WEEP AT FLAMES. 

Women wrung their hands and wept, crying, "It is so terrible.' 
The position of the operator at the Ferry Building was one of extreme 
peril, and any message was likely to be the last. There was no chance to 
verify any story brought in. All that could be said with certainty was that 
the fire was still awful in its ravages and appalling in the extent of the 
territory covered, this reaching from the water front to Eighth Street, in a 
strip varying from four to twelve blocks, with scattered fires in the Mission, 
a section remote from the centre of the ravages. 



«8 



AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 




S'ANTA CLARA 



SAN JOSt 



MAP OF SAX FKAXCISCO AND VICINITY. 
The towns named suffered great loss from etTecte. of the earthuuake. 



AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 39 

Several looters were shot by the soldiers who were patrolling the 
streets. General Funston issued orders to this effect, and four men caught 
stealing- were summarily shot. 

The greatest destruction occurred in that part of the city which was 
reclaimed from San Francisco Bay. Much of the devastated district was 
at one time low marshy ground, covered by water at high tide. As the 
city grew it became necessary to fill in many acres of this low ground in 
order to reach ilcep water. The Alerchants' ICxchange Building, a fourteen- 
story steel structure, was situated on the edge of this reclaimed ground. It 
had just been completed, and the executive offices of the Southern Pacific 
Company occupied the greater part of the building. 

RESIDENCE SECTION DOOMED. 

The damage by the earthquake to the residence portion of the city, 
the finest part of which is on Nob Flill and Pacific Heights, seems to have 
been slight. On Nob Hill are the residences of many of the millionaires 
who in the early 70's became w^ealthy through mining investments or the 
construction of the Central Pacific Railway. They include the Stanfords, 
Huntingdons, Hopkins, Crockers, Floods and others. 

The magnificent Fairmount Flotel stands on the brink of Nob Hill 
overlooking the bay. The hotel was not seriously damaged by the earth- 
c|uake, but destroyed by fire. The construction of the lu)tcl was started 
by Mrs. Herman Oelrichs, of New York, as a monument to her father, 
Senator James Fair, but she sold it for $3,000,000. 

A Committee of Safety was appointed by Mayor Schmitz, and the 
members were to assist in keeping order and directing relief. The Mayor 
notified bakers and milk dealers that their stock nuist be kept for use of 
the homeless. 

While buildings were being blow^n up with dynamite, premature 
explosions killed many men. The Terminal Hotel, at the river front on 
Market Street, fell and buried twenty persons under the debris. All of 
San Francisco's playhouses, including the Majestic, Columbia, Orpheum 
and Grand Opera House, are a mass of ruins. The earthquake demolished 
them for all practical purposes and the fire completed the destruction. The 
handsome Rialtc^ and Casserly buildings were burned to the ground, as wm 
everything in that district. 



40 AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 

The scene at the IMechanics' Pavilion, where the dead and injured 
were taken, was one of indescribable horror. Sisters, brothers, wives and 
sweethearts searched eagerly for some missing dear one. Thousands of 
persons hurriedly went through the building, inspecting cots on which the 
sufferers lay, in the hope that they would find some loved one who was 
missing. 

FIRE ROUTS HOSPITAL CORPS. 

The dead were placed in one portion of the building, and the remainder 
was devoted to hospital purposes. Later on the fire forced the nurses and 
physicians to desert the place with their patients, and the eager crowds 
followed tliem to the Presidio and the Children's Hospital, where they 
renewed their search for missing relatives. 

The day's experience was a testimonial to the modern steel building. 
A score of these structures were in course of construction, and not one 
suffered from the earthquake shock. The completed modern buildings 
were also virtually immune from harm from the seismic movements. The 
damage by earthquake did not compare with the loss by fire. 

The freaks of the earthquake were many. Wide fissures were made 
in the streets, street railways were twisted out of line, sewers and water 
pipes were burst, and it was feared that there would be an epidemic of 
disease. Provisions were sold at fancy prices, and even water was vended 
by the glass. 

At a meeting of the Committee of Safety, Mayor Schmitz issued the 
following proclamation : 

"The Federal troops which are now policing a portion of the city, 
as well as the regiilar and special members of the police force, have been 
authorized by me to kill any persons whomsoever found engaged in looting 
the effects of any citizen or otherwise engaged in the commission of crime. 

"Under these circumstances I request that all citizens whose business 
does not imperatively require their absence from home after dark remain 
at home during the night time until order shall have been restored. I beg- 
to warn all citizens of the danger of fire on account of defective or 
destroyed chimneys, gns pipes, gas fixtures and the like." 

At 5 o'clock at night the firemen were as far as eA-er from checking 



I 



AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 41 

the progress of the flames. In the northern part of the downtown business 
section the fire swept around the Hall of Justice and communicated to 
Chinatown, thence proceeding- westward into the heart of that colony. 
It then began rapidly eating its way southward on both sides of Kearney 
Street, and at 7 P. M. was within a block of the California Hotel. This 
point is near the plant of the Evoiijig Bulletin, in which the three morning 
papers had agreed to join to issue a four-sheet paper in the morning. 
That plan was abandoned, as the Bulletin lay directly in the path of the 
flames. 

One of the big losses of the day was the destruction of St, Ignatius's 
Church and College, at Van Ness Avenue and Hayes Street. This was 
the greatest Jesuit institution in the West, and was built at a cost of a 
couple of millions. 

At 7 o'clock the fire had swept from the south side of the town across 
Market Street into the western addition, and was burning houses at 
Golden Gate Avenue and Octavia Street. This result was reached after 
almost the entire southern district from Ninth Street to the eastern water 
front had been converted into a blackened waste. In this quarter were 
hundreds of factories, wholesale houses and many business firms, in addi- 
tion to thousands of homes. 

MAYOR ROUTED BY FIRE. 

Temporary headquarters were established in tents in Portmouth 
Square for Mayor Schmitz, Chief of Police Dinen and General Funston, 
but this site became too dangerous about 6 o'clock and was abandoned. 
Later the flames swept the square. In the south side district on Rincon 
Hill, St. Mary's Hospital, a landmark, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, 
was reduced to ashes. 

Throughout the city, wherever there was a public square, a scene of 
desolation was presented. Tents were pitched by fortunate possessors of 
canvas, but most of the homeless people were huddled in frig'htened groups 
about the household belongings they managed to save from the general 
ruin. 

Despite the heroic work of the firemen and the troops of dynamiters, 
who razed building after building, and blew up property valued at millions. 



42 AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 

tbe flames spread across Market Street to the north side, and swept up 
Montgomery Street, almost to Washington Street. Along Montgomery 
Street are some of the richest banks and commercial houses in San 
Francisco. The Mutual Life Insurance Building and scores of bank and 
office buildings were on fire, while blocks of other houses were in the patfi 
of the flames, and nothing seemed to be at hand to stay their progress. 
Block after block of banking houses were now masses of red-hot ruin. 

KNEEL IN PRAYER ON PAVEMENT. 

The pastor of St, Francis's Church, on the slope of Telegraph Hill, 
a few blocks from the raging furnace, gathered his flock about him on the 
sidewalk, where all knelt in prayer. There was neither gas nor electric 
light in San Francisco at night. The plant of one of the gas companies 
blew up in the morning, and as a measure of precaution all the other gas 
in the city was turned ofi. 

From Golden Gate Park came news of the total destruction of the 
immense building covering a portion of the children's playground. The 
pillars of the new stone gates at the park entrances were twisted and 
torn from their foundations. Some of them, weighing nearly four tons, 
were shifted as though they were constructed of cork. 

In Union Square Park the mighty Dewey monument was shifted 
from its base and stood leaning at an angle of lo degrees. 

Prof. George Davidson, of the University of California, formerly 
connected with the United States Geodetic Survey, said : 

"The earthquake came from north to south, and the only description 
I am able to give of its effect is that it seemed like a terrier shaking a rat. 
I was in bed, but was awakened at the first shock. I began to count the 
seconds as I went toward the table where my watch was, being able 
through much practice closely to approximate the time in that manner. 
The shock came at 5.12 o'clock. 

"There were two slight shocks afterward. At 8.14 o'clock I recorded 
a shock of five seconds' duration and one at 4.15 of two seconds. There 
were slight shocks which I did not record at 5.17 and 5.27. At 6.50 
P. M. there was a sharp shock of several seconds." 

It was long the aim of Leland Stanford, builder of great railroads, 



AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 43 

United States Senator and Governor of the State of California, to estab- 
lish a mighty educational institution for the perpetuation of his name. 
And when, in 1885, his only son, Leland Stanford, Jr., died, Senator 
Stanford and his wife determined to undertake at once the establishment 
of the university so long in contemplation. 

For an example of such public service they had before them the 
University of California at Berkeley, which owed a large part of its 
endowment, if not its very claim to continuing existence, to the generosity 
of another family which had made its millions in the development of 
railroad facilities, for Mrs. Pheebe Herst had already determined to devote 
a large part of her great fortune to the elder institution. 

Palo Alto, in the heart of the Santa Clara Valley, was chosen for the 
site, and work, started soon after the death of the younger Stanford, was 
pushed with a celerity that enabled the opening of the institution before 
the decade had closed. 

BUILT TO RESIST EARTHQUAKES. 

It is of peculiar interest at this time that the plan oi the buildings of 
Leland Stanford, Jr., University contemplated a type which was thought 
to be well able to resist earthquake shock. None of the structures around 
the great quadrangle was raised more than a story in height, the general 
style of architecture being that of the old mission buildings which remained 
throughout California as relics of an earlier age. 

The asphalted court, or quadrangle, was 586 feet long and 246 v/ide, 
and contained more than three acres of space. To the beautification of 
the establishment some of the most celebrated artists of the world were 
called, among them St. Gaudens, who personally designed and superin- 
tended the erection of some of the massive gateways that led into the 
inner courts. 

Stanford University grew fast. By 1899 it had 1400 students, 500 
of them girls, and in six years its membership grew to over 2000 students 
all told. After the death of Senator Stanford, in 1893, Mrs. Stanford 
devoted virtually her entire time to the institution, having so close a 
watch over its departments and instruction, indeed, that at times there 
was trouble in its teaching corps as a result of her activities. David Starr 



44 AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 

Jordan has been th-e very efficient president of the university since 1891. 

Palo Alto is thirty-three miles south of San Francisco, on the coast 
line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The university was endowed to the 
extent of nearly $30,000,000. The university buildings are built of brown- 
stone, and said to be the finest cluster of buildings used for educational 
purposes in this country. The memorial chapel, which is situated in the 
center of the group of buildings, was built at a cost of more than 
$3,000,000. 

The town of Palo Alto has a population of about 5000, and the 
country for a radius of several miles is level. 

GREAT EARTHQUAKES OF THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. 

June 10, 1886 — Tarawera, New Zealand. Earthquake and volcanic 
eruption. Many persons perished. 

August 31, 1 886 — Earthquake shock felt throughout nearly the entire 
portion of the United States east of the Mississippi River, the shocks being 
experienced from the Gulf northward to the upper lakes and from points 
near the Mississippi eastward to the Atlantic Coast. The shock was 
particularly severe at points in the South, and in Charleston, Savannah, 
Augusta and nearby places the shock was repeated. Charleston was the 
center of the disturbance and suffered the greatest damage. A number 
of the houses in that city v/ere either entirely demolished or rendered unfit 
'for occupancy. The losses ran into millions and thirty-five lives were lost. 
Shocks returned at intervals throughout the entire months of September, 
October and November. From August 28th to September 30th no less 
than thirty shocks were recorded; during October, twenty-eight, and during 
November, fourteen. Many of the disturbances recorded, however, were 
so slight as to be hardly noticeable. 

May 3, 1887 — Mexico. Earthquake and volcanic eruption; thirteen 
killed. 

December, 1887 — Yunnan, China; 5,000 killed. Lo-Chan, China, 
10,000 killed. 

March 10, 1888 — Yellow River, China. Flood and earthquake; 
100,000 killed. 

July 30, 1889 — Japan. Many lives lost. 



AWFUL HAVOC BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE 45 

October 28, rS9i — Japan; 6500 killed. 

January 28, 1894 — Persia; 12,000 killed. 

April 23, 1894 — Greece, 22^ killed. 

May 9, 1894 — Venezuela; 11,000 killed. 

July 10, 1894 — Constantinople; 1000 killed 

January 17, 1902 — Mexico; 300 killed. 

September 25, 1902 — Turkestan, 667 killed. 

January 22-27, 1903 — State of Chihuahua, Mexico. Four ^' 
were felt, eighteen houses wrecked and the entire population became ^.. 
stricken. 

February 8, 1903 — United States. Shocks startled Illinois, Missouri 
and Kentucky. Little damage was done. Southern Illinois and Eastern 
Missouri were much disturbed by two severe shocks, which caused chimneys 
to topple over, stopped clocks, broke windows and sent the people fleeing 
in terror. At Owensboro, Ky., the shocks were quite severe and many 
buildings were damaged. On the same day earthquake shocks were felt 
at Brest, St. Breuc and on the island of Moleve, in France. 

March 30, 1903 — Jerusalem. Shock of unprecedented violence. The 
people were panic-stricken, but damage slight. 

April 4, 1905 — Seven shocks were felt in the Valley of Kangra, India, 
causing severe destruction and suffering. 

September 8, 1905 — Province of Calabra, Italy. Very destructive. 



CHAPTER II. 

SAN FRANCISCO'S FINE RESIDENCES IN FLAMES AND 
WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED. 

SUCH was the news that appalled the world on the afternoon of April 
19th. The startling despatch was as follows : 

"The great conflagration is sweeping through the residential section 
of San Francisco. Flames have reached the Fairmount Hotel, on Nob 
Hill, and are rapidly encroaching upon the homes of the Crockers, the 
Huntingtons and other wealthy Californians in that aristocratic portion of 
the city. Every business building in the city has been destroyed. 

"The water supply, which was crippled by the earthquake shocks, has 
been completely shut off, and there is no water to fight the fire. To add 
to the desperate situation, explosives used to blow up buildings in the fire's 
path are becoming exhausted. 

"The city at latest accounts is doomed to destruction by fire. There 
is no possible means now to check the course of the flames, and they will 
probably burn until there is nothing left for them to feed upon. 

"Nothing now remains of the business section of the city but a dreary 
waste of smouldering ruins. The fire has already burned its way over an 
area of ten square miles. 

"From the interior of the State come the most alarming reports. 
Santa Rosa, one of the prettiest cities, is a total wreck. The loss of life 
has not been estimated. It will reach thousands. There are 10,000 home- 
less men, women and children huddled in the open spaces of that city. The 
whole business portion of the town seemed to crumble into ruins with the 
earthquake shock. What was not destroyed by seismic violence was oblit- 
erated by flames. 

INSANE ASYLUM DEMOLISHED. 

"In San Jose and Oakland the havoc was fearful. Agnew's Insane 
Asylum was demolished by the shock, and many of the inmates were 
buried in the ruins. Those who escaped death or injury fled and are 
roaming about the stricken country. 

46 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED, .47 

"A late \\'estern Union dispatch say's the section surrounding the spot 
upon which the building of that company stood is in a mass of flames. 
The burning territory is surrounded by United States troops. 

"The fears of the inhabitants of Oakland were intensified by another 
sharp earthquake shock, which lasted about five seconds. This shock was 
felt in San Francisco, and buildings are reported to have been shaken 
down. 

"The United States Mint, which contained $39,000,000 of coin and 
bullion, escaped destruction, although all around it buildings were burned 
to the ground. The employees of the mint battled with the encroaching 
flames for hours, and often at the risk of their lives. 

"In spite of the vigilance of the police and the United States troops, 
who are patrolling the burned and burning section, thieves and vandals 
worked. The shooting of three fiends caught in the act of robbing the 
dead had a tendency to check pillage and theft, but failed to stop it." 

Of the scenes which marked the transformation of this the gayest, 
most careless city on the continent, into a wreck and a hell, it is hard to 
write. That the day started with a blind, general panic goes without 
saying. People woke with a start to find themselves flung on the floor. 
In such an earthquake as this it is the human instinct to get out of doors, 
away from falling walls. The people stumbled across the floors of their 
heaving houses to find that even the good earth upon which they placed 
their reliance was swaying and rising and falling so that the sidewalks 
cracked and great rents opened in the ground. 

ROAR IN THE AIR LIKE THUNDER. 

The three minutes which followed were an eternity of terror. Prob- 
ably a dozen or more persons died of pure fright in that three minutes, 
when there seemed no help in earth or heaven. There was a roar in the 
air like a great burst of thunder, and from all about came the crash of 
falling walls. It died down at last, leaving the earth quaking and quivering 
like jelly. Men would run forward, stop as another shock, which might 
be greater any moment, seemed to take the earth from under their feet, 
and throw themselves face downward on the ground in an agony of fear. 

It seemed to be two or three minutes after the great shock was over 



48 WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 

before people found their voices. Then followed the screaming of women 
beside themselves with terror, and the cries of men. With an impulse 
people made for the parks, as far as possible from the falling walls. These 
speedily became packed with people in their nightclothes, who screamed and 
moaned at the little shocks which followed every few minutes. The dawn 
was just breaking. The gas and electric mains were gone, and the street 
lamps were all out. But before the dawn was white there came a light 
from the east — the burning warehouse district. The braver men, and those 
without families to watch over, struck out, half dressed as they were. In 
the early morning light they could see the business district below them, all 
ruins and burning in five or six places. Through the streets from every 
direction came the fire engines, called from all the outlying districts by 
the general alarm rung in by the assistants of the dead chief. 

PANIC IN PORTSMOUTH SQUARE. 

On Portsmouth Square the panic was beyond description. This, the 
old Plaza about which the early city was built, is bordered now by China- 
town, by the Italian district, and by the "Barbary Coast," a lower ten- 
derloin. A spur of the quake ran up the hill upon which Chinatown is 
situated and shook down part of the crazy little buildings on the southern 
edge. It tore down, too, some of the Italian tenements. The rush to 
Portsmouth Square went on almost unchecked by the police, who had 
more business elesewhere. 

The Chinese came out of their underground burrows like rats and 
tumbled into the square, beating such gongs and playing such noisy instru- 
ments as they had snatched up. They were met on the other side by the 
refugees of the Italian quarter. The panic became a madness. At least 
two Chinamen were taken to the morgue dead of knife wounds, given 
for no other reason, it seems, than the madness of panic. 

There are 10,000 Chinese in the quarter, and there are thousands of 
Italians, Spaniards and Alcxicans on the other side. It seemed as though 
every one of these, with the riffraff of "Barbary Coast," made for that one 
block of open land. The two uncontrolled streams met in the center of 
the square and piled upon the edges. There they fought all the morning, 
until the regulars restored order with their bayonets. 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 49 

As the dawn broke and the lower city began to be overhung with the 
smoke of burning buildings, there came a back eddy. Cabmen, drivers of 
express wagons and trucks, hired at enormous prices, began carting away 
from the lower city the valuables of the hotels which saw their doom in 
the fires which were breaking out. Even the banks began to take out their 
bullion and securities and, under guard of half-dressed clerks, to send 
them to the hills, whence came to-day the salvation of San Francisco. 

VANDALS GET TO WORK. 

One old nighthawk cab, driven by a cabman white with terror, carried 
more than a million dollar^, in currency and securities. Men, pulling 
corpses or injured people from fallen buildings, stopped to curse these 
processions as they passed. Time and again a line of wagons and cabs 
would run against an impassable barrier of debris, where some building 
had fallen into the street, and would pile up until the guards cleared a 
way through the streets. 

Then the vandals formed and went to work. Routed out from the 
dens along the wharves, the rats of San Francisco waterfront, the drifters 
who have reached the back eddy of European civilization, crawled out 
and began to plunder. Early in the day a policeman caught one of these 
men creeping through the window of a small bank on Montgomery Street 
and shot him dead. But the police were keeping fire lines, beating back 
over-zealous rescuers from the fallen houses and the burning blocks, and 
for a time these men plundered at will. 

News of the plundering was carried early to Mayor Schmitz. It 
was this as much as anything which determined him, when General Funston 
came over on the double-quick, with the whole garrison of the Presidio, 
to put the city under martial law. Orders were issued to the troops to 
shoot anyone caught in the act of looting, and the same orders were 
issued to the First Regiment, National Guard of California, when it was 
mustered and called out later in the day. 

And all this time, and clear up until noon, the earth was shaking with 
little tremors, many of which brought down walls and chimneys. At 
each of these the rescuers, even the firemen, would stop for a moment 

paralyzed. 
4— S. F. 



£o wholp: business section destroyi:!) 

The 8 o'clock shock, the heaviest after the bii;- one, dr()vc even those 
who had determined to stay by the stricken city to look for a means of 
escape by water. There are only two ways out of San Francisco ; one is 
by rail to the south and down the Santa Clara Valley, the other is by 
water to Oakland, the Overland terminal. Most of the Californians trying 
to get out of the quaking, dangerous city made by instinct for the ferry, 
since they knew that the shocks always travel heavily to the south, down 
the Santa Clara Valley. 

As for the Easterners, thev had come bv fcrr\' and they started to 
get out by ferry. But when the half-dressed people, carrying the ridiculous 
bundles snatched up in time of panic, reached Montgomery Street, they 
found they wav stopped by ten blocks of fire. They piled up on the edge 
of this district, fighting with the police, who held them back and turned 
them again toward the hills. They must stay in the city. If it went, they 
went with it. 

TROOPS STOP FLIGHT. 

The troops ended their last hope of getting out of towm. So great 
had been the disorder that as afternoon came on and the earth seemed 
to be quieting down, they enforced strict laws against movement. This 
stopped a strange feature of the disaster — a run on the banks by people 
who wanted to get out their money and go. All the morning lines of 
disheveled men had been standing before the banks on Montgomery and 
Sansome Streets, ignoring the smoke and flying brands and beating on 
the doors. The troops drove these away, and the banks went on with 
their work of getting out the valuables. 

There is an open park o])posite City Hall. Mere, in default of a 
building, the Board of Supervisors met and formed, together with fifty 
substantial citizens whom they had gathered together, a committee of 
safety. They also set themselves to the problem of quarters for the dying 
and the dead. 

Strangely enough. Mechanics' Pavilion, across from the City PTall. 
had escaped, although it is onlv a wooden building. But it has the 
largest floor in San Francisco, and it w'as pressed into service at once. 
The police and the troops, w^orking admirably together, passed the w^ord 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 51 

that the dead and injured should be brought there, since the hospitals and 
morgue had become choked, and toward that point, in the early forenoon, 
the drays, express wagons and hacks, impressed as temporary ambulances, 
took their course. 

There were perhaps 400 injured people, many of them terribly mangled, 
laid out on the floor before noon. Nearly every physician in the city 
volunteered, and they got together enough trained nurses to do the work. 
There were fewer corpses; too busy were the forces of order in stopping 
the conflagration and caring for the living to care for the dead. One 
of the first wagons to arrive, however, brought a whole family — father, 
mother and three children — all dead except the baby, who had a terrible 
cut across the forehead and a broken arm. These had been dragged out 
from the ruins of their house on the water front. 

WORKINGMEN KILLED BY FALL OF BUILDING. 

A large consignment of bodies, mostly of workingmen, came from a 
small hotel on Eddy Street, through whose roof there fell the entire upper 
structure of a tall building next door. It made kindling wood of the tw^o 
upper floors of the lodging house, which itself stood. Men from the 
neighboring houses, running along the streets, heard the cries and groans 
from this house and ran in. They reached the second floor, and through 
a hole in the ceiling there tumbled a man, horribly mangled about the 
head, who lay where he had fallen and died at their feet. 

Tlien there is a story, one of the almost incredible horrors to vvhich 
we have listened all day, brought to the central police station by a man 
named Hussey. He told how he found in a burning building a man 
pinioned by the wreck and already scorched by the flames; how this man 
begged of a policeman who stood by for release from his misery, and how 
the policeman fired and missed. Then Hussey took a knife and severed 
an artery in the wrist of the sufferer, who bled to death. Hussey talked 
rationally, but the police locked him up until they can investigate. 

Later and unconfirmed news from the wreck of the Valencia Hotel 
says that the ground fairly sucked it in. The basement was full of water, 
so that when the rescue corps got through the debris they found the bodies 
floating about, apparently as many drowned as crushed. They tell of 



52 WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 

people thrown from windows and killed on the pavements below by the 
first great shake, of people crushed in the streets by the debris which fell 
from the upper stories of buildings. The people were so sickened by 
horror that they were willing to believe anything. 

As the day wore and the wind changed, the fire along the water front 
burned itself out and ran on further down south of Market street. This 
gave a comparatively clear passage to the ferry building, and the troops 
permitted genuine refugees to pass to the Southern Pacific ferries, whicli 
were loaded down with people, many of them still half dressed. At night- 
fall the troops cut off this privilege, probably for fear of rioting and 
disorder. 

PANIC-STRICKEN PEOPLE FLEEING FOR SAFETY. 

Thousands of homeless and panic-stricken people were leaving the 
city and seeking shelter in Oakland and other suburban towns. The 
suffering and hardship were great. Countless numbers of residents of the 
poorer part of the city, including Chinese, Japanese and Italian quarters, 
were rendered homeless. Never has the fate of a city been more disastrous. 

For three miles along the water front buildings were swept clean, 
and the blackened beams and great skeletons of factories and offices stood 
silhouetted against a background of flame that was slowly spreading over 
the entire city. The whole commercial and office quarter on the north 
side of Market Street to Tenth Street was consumed in the flames, while 
hardly a building was standing in the district south of Market Street. 
Despite the heroic work of the firemen and the troops of dynamiters, who 
razed building after building and blew up property valued at millions, the 
flames spread across Market Street to the north side and swept up Mont- 
gomery Street, almost to Washington Street. 

Along Montgomery Street are some of the richest banks and com- 
mercial houses in San Francisco. The famous Mills Building and the 
new Merchants' Exchange, in which is situated the Marine and Stock 
Exchanges, were still standing, but the Mutual Life Insurance Building 
and scores of bank and office buildings were on fire, while blocks of other 
houses were in the path of the flames, and nothing seemed to be at hand 
to stay their progress. 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 53 

The earthquake caused the partial wreck of the California Hotel, 

at Bush and Kearney Streets, and the falling chimney and cornice of the 

hotel crashed through the lire house adjoining, severely injuring Fire Chief 

Sullivan so that he was unable to direct the work of fire fighting. 

Despite this disheartening accident, the entire fire department, assisted 
by part of the Oakland department and many volunteers from outside 
districts, did heroic service, many brave men losing their lives while 
performing the work of succor. The earthquake, however, had broken 
most of the water mains, and the men were without water to battle with 
the fire. Whatever water was obtained to fight the flames in the harbor 
front and in the factory districts was pumped from the bay. This com- 
pelled dynamiting as the only possible method of saving any of the city. 

BIG HOTELS AND FACTORIES WIPED OUT. 

The flames were kept confined to the south of Market Street in the 
business section until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the wind 
carried sheets of flame into the richest part of the city. 

Nothing except the gutted framework of the Palace Hotel, 1000 
rooms, stands. 

The $2,000,000 Fairmount Hotel is still standing. It suffered little 
damage. The Odd Fellows' Temple, in Market street, the St. Nicholas 
and the Call and the Examiner buildings and the Parrott building are 
gone, while the City Hall caved in when the earthquake shook the city. 

Nearly every big factory building has been wiped out, and a complete 
enumeration of them would look like a copy of the city directory. Many 
of the finest buildings in the city were leveled to dust by terrific charges 
of dynamite in an ineffectual effort to stay the fire. In this work many 
heroic soldiers, policemen and firemen were maimed or killed outright. 

At night the city resembled one vast shambles, with the red glare of 
the fire throwing weird shadows across the worn and panic-stricken faces 
of the homeless wandering the streets or sleeping on piles of mattresses 
and clothing in the parks and on the sidewalks in those districts not yet 
reached by the fire. Thousands fled the city, forgetting for a moment 
the terrible suffering, physical and financial, that trails in the wake of the 



54 WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 

disaster, and the scene presented by the flames was one of unspeakable 
g-randeur. 

Looking over the city from a high hill in the western section, the 
flames could be seen rolling- skyward for miles and miles, while in the 
midst of the spitting red tongues of fire could be seen the black skeletons 
and falling towers of doomed buildings. At regular intervals the booming 
of dynamite told of the work of the brave men attempting to save the 
city from annihilation. 

A falling wall from one of the dynamited buildings on Mission Street 
tnished out the life of Fireman Max Fenner, while many other fire- 
fighters met a like fate. Through all the streets ambulances and express 
wagons were hurrying, carrying dead and injured to morgues and hospitals. 

DEAD LEFT TO CREMATION. 

At the morgue in the Hall of Justice fifty bodies were lying. The 
flames rapidly approached this building, and the work of removing the 
bodies to Jackson Square, opposite, began. While the soldiers and police 
were carrying the dead to what appeared safe places, a shower of bricks 
from a building dynamited to check the flames injured many of the 
workmen and sent soldiers in procession hurrying to hospitals. The work 
of removing the bodies stopped, and the remainder of the dead were left 
to possible cremation in the morgue. ^ 

The city was under stringent martial law, and squads of cavalry and 
troops of infantry were patrolling the streets and guarding the sections 
that were not yet touched by the flames. Despite their efforts to keep 
the crowds from the section being dynamited, many persons slipped through 
the guards, and not a few suffered for their temerity. 

From the Barbary Coast the horde of vicious and criminal that infest 
that quarter poured forth and started early in the evening to loot stores 
and rob the dead. Fearing such a fiendish climax to this day of horrors. 
Mayor Schmitz and Police Chief Dinan issued orders for the soldiers to 
kill all who engaged in such work. Before the eyes of an Associated 
Press representative three thieves were shot in the back and fatally wounded 
in the burning commercial district. 

The earthquake worked astonishing havoc in San Francisco's famous 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 55 

Chinatown. Chinese theatres and joss houses are in ruins, and rookery 
after rookciy collapsed, covering alive hundreds of Chinese. Panic reigned 
among the thousands of Chinese, and they filled the streets, dragging 
in whatever they could save. 

The Japanese quarter was burned. The people fled in terror, packing 
on their backs what household effects they could tie together. Thousands 
of men, women and children from the Latin quarter quit the throng when 
darkness began to fall, and marched in endless procession towards the 
hills or to the water front, frantic to get away from the city lest other 
earthquakes follow and the flames trap them before they could make their 
escape. 

At 9 o'clock an Associated Press man who went to a high hill over- 
looking the city noted that the sky on the east and south sides was illumi- 
nated for a distance of four or five miles. The illumination on the southern 
side was of a duller glow, showing that the flames were not consuming 
property of such great proportions as was the case on the east side. 

SOME OF THE CHOICEST BUILDINGS BURNED. 

In the business district towards the water front the flames were either 
checked or blocked at about Washington Street, and at the corner of 
Kearney Street the Hall of Justice could be noted standing, but it was 
impossible to determine what damage had been done to the interior. From 
the Hall of Justice to the south the fire cut its way through some of the 
choicest buildings in the city, the Pacific Mutual and the Italian-American 
banks being reduced to ashes. Down Kearney Street on both sides at lo 
o'clock the conflagration was still raging with fury, but the direction of 
the wind prevented its advance up the hills to the west towards the residence 
quarter. Yet the greater portion of the structures to the west of Kearney 
up to Dupont were burned as far south as California. 

All around the new Merchants' Exchange Building the fire burned 
fiercely, licking the sides of the steel giant, but it resisted the influence of 
the heat. Then came the destruction of the Western Union Building, at 
the corner of Pine and Montgomery Streets. In this building was the 
ofiice of the Associated Press. Earlier in the day the occupants had been 
ordered out by the authorities on account of danger, and the Associated 



66 WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 

Press established a temporary station in the Bulletin editorial rooms. Then 
the latter place was closed, and this was written on a doorstep near 
Chinatown, the illumination of the burning buildings furnishing light for 
the writer. 

THE CITY FAIRLY ORDERLY. 

The city, in the face of its appalling disaster, was fairly quiet and 
orderly. Liquor could not be had anywhere, and the formidable presence 
of Federal troops, militia and naval reserves had its effect on an element 
that might be disposed to be disorderly. 

At Mechanics' Pavilion scenes of heroism and later of panic were 
enacted. The great frame building was turned into a hospital, with a corps 
of fifty physicians. Nurses volunteered, and the Red Cross ship from the 
Government yards at Mare Island contributed doctors and supplies. Late 
in the afternoon, while the ambulances and automobiles were unloading 
wounded at the building, the march of the conflagration up Market Street 
gave warning that the injured would have to be removed at once. Every 
available vehicle was pressed into service to get the stricken into hospitals 
and private houses of the western addition. A few minutes after the last 
of the wounded had been carried through the door, fire shot from the 
roof and the structure burst into a whirlwind of flame. 

Down on the harbor front the earth seems to have sunk from six to 
eight inches, and great cracks appear in the streets. These cracks were 
twisted into all shapes, and buildings before they were destroyed by fire 
were seen to be out of plumb. The flames shot in sheets across the streets, 
and street cars and Southern Pacific rolling stock were burned to the truck 
wheels. The following is a vivid account by an eye-witness : 

The day of awful disaster was followed by a night of terror — a black 
night of terror — for the city was in darkness, save where the crushed and 
ruined heart of the city flared red with fire. 

In the glare of this red light, as it shot down the streets beyond the 
ruined district, walked the little files of soldiers, policemen and citizens, 
each little file bearing the ghastly burden of a disfigured corpse to the huge 
Mechanics' Pavilion, now turned to a mammoth morgue. Six hundred 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 57 

crushed human forms and countless hundre'd wounded, moaning creatures, 
in whom Hfe still lingered, were borne to this big hall. 

Armies in exodus filled all the roads last night. They fled the city in 
all manner of vehicles. Hysterical cries of terror and distress sounded 
every little while. 

The burning water front made a huge torch, turning the bay into 
a red lake and flaming upon the ferryboats, crowded to the danger limit, 
bearing refugees from the demolished, burning city to the safety camps 
of Oakland. 

DYNAMITE FREELY USED. 

The soldiers and the police had a fierce fight to keep the avenues to 
the big ferry pier passable. Time and again they used dynamite to blow 
away buildings that might feed the fire. The streets approaching the ferry 
were at times valleys of fire. It did not lick its way to the ferry piers, 
because a broad boulevard between kept the flames at a distance. 

It was during lulls in the high roaring of the fire that the terror- 
stricken crowds rushed madly through the streets and reached the ferry 
slips safely. The panic grew more intense hourly, for hourly the thousands 
huddled on the roofs in the residential districts saw red tongues shoot up 
in new places, signaling another defeat of the fire-fighters and a greater 
danger of the complete obliteration of the city. 

When the fire did not glare the city was wrapped in a thick, stifling 
cloak of smoke. It was constantly thickening. One could hardly breathe, 
even, in the outskirts of the city. The stinging smoke had routed hundreds 
of the fire^fighters. It sent soldiers, policemen, firemen and other volunteers 
reeling away toward any place near the water front where they could 
get a gasp of fresh air and lave their blinded, stinging eyes. 

Added to the plague of smoke was the stench of leaking gas mains — 
sickening, overpowering, pervading every street in the city. In the burning 
district the gas mains were shooting up geysers of flames, roaring among 
the red ruins. 

Panic could not be checked under such conditions. It was no wonder 
that frenzy and fright had seized upon the people and sent them rushing, 
struggling and fighting along all the avenues of escape. Mission Road, 



5S WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 

San Mateo and Port Lobos Roads were crowded with an endless proces- 
sion. And, though these roads lead down by the shore, and though the 
fear was keen and uppermost that the great earthquake might be followed 
l:!y a tidal wave that would roar across the city, yet the people must choose 
to risk this probable danger to escape the deadly dangers that already exist. 
They were flying, too, from the famine of water and food that plunged 
the stricken city into new agonies, for the assistance at first was not com- 
mensurate with the great demand. 

FEVER OF FLIGHT UNCHECKED. 

The fever of flight and panic was beyond all control. There were 
great nervous throngs around such railroad stations as were not encom- 
passed by flames. Most of the lines were crippled in spots beyond the 
city, the huge rails in places tied in knots by the irresistible power of the 
quaking earth. Many were taken in tugs and ferry boats past Oakland 
and up the Sacramento River to Vallejo, for between Oakland and Vallejo 
three miles of tracks, cross ties and all, were swallowed by the gaping of 
the ground. 

I have seen this whole, great horror. I stood, with two others, on the 
corner of Market Street, waiting for a car. Sunlight was coming out of 
the early morning mist. It spread its brightness on the roofs of the sky- 
scrapers, on the domes and spires of churches, and blazed along up the wide 
street with its countless banks and stores, its restaurants and cafes. 

In the very early morning the city was almost noiseless. Occasionally 
a newspaper wagon clattered up the street or a milk wagon rumbled along. 
One of my companions had told a funny story. We were laughing at it. 
We stopped — the laugh unfinished on our lips. 

Of a sudden we had found ourselves staggering and reeling. It was 
as if the earth was slipping gently from under our feet. Then came a 
sickening swaying of the earth that threw us flat upon our faces. We 
struggled in the street. We could not get on our feet. 

I looked in a dazed fashion around me. I saw for an instant the big 
buildings in what looked like a crazy dance. 

Then it seemed as though my head were split with the roar that 
crashed into my ears. Big buildings were crumbling as one might crush 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 59 

a biscuit in one's hand. Great gray clouds of dust shot up with flying- 
timbers and storms of masoniy rained into the street. Wild, high jangles 
of smashing glass cut a sharp note into the frightful roaring. Ahead of 
me a great stone cornice crushed a man as if he were a maggot — a laborer 
in overalls on his way to the Union Iron Works, with a dinner pail on 
his arm. 

Everywhere men were on all fours in the street, like crawling bugs. 
Still the sickening, dreadful swaying of the earth continued. It seemed 
a quarter of an hour before it stopped. As a matter of fact, it lasted 
about three minutes. 

Footing grew firm again, but hardly were we on our feet before we 
were sent reeling again by repeated shocks, but they were milder. Clinging 
to something, one could stand. 

HORRIBLE CHORUS OF AGONY. 

The dust clouds were gone. It was quite dark, like twilight. But I 
saw trolley tracks uprooted, twisted fantastically. I saw wide wounds in 
the street. Water flooded out of one. A deadly odor of gas from a 
broken main swept out of the other. Telegraph poles were rocked like 
matches. A wild tangle of wires was in the street. Some of the wires 
wriggled and shot blue sparks. 

From the south of us, faint, but all too clear, came a horrible chorus 
of human cries of agony. Down there in a ramshackle section of the city 
the wretched houses had fallen in upon the sleeping families. Down there 
throughout the day a fire burned the great part of whose fuel it is too 
gruesome a ting to contemplate. 

That was what came next — the fire. It shot up everywhere. The 
fierce wave of destruction had carried a flaming torch with it — agony, 
death and a flaming torch. It was just as if some fire demon was rushing 
from place to place with such a torch. Flames streamed out of half-shat- 
tered buildings all along broad Market Street. 

I must confess to bewildeiTnent — to a sort of queer calm in which I 
hardly noticed anything. And then things grew clear. My two com- 
panions and myself stumbled over debris and crawled over it to the 
Examiner office, at Market and Third Streets. 



60 WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 

A tang-le of broken wires was about the building. We could not 
enter it. We made our way into Market Street. We came upon the ruins 
of a lodging house. We worked with others. We dragged and pulled 
debris off men who had been crushed to death. We found three living 
ones. We carried them into the street. 

Fire was sweeping e\'erywhere. The clanging of the fire apparatus 
dashing into the heart of the disaster sounded ceaselessly. 

Amid death and destruction a splendid spirit of heroism was bom 
among the fortunateswho had escaped. They appeared from all directions 
— on foot, in automobiles, in cabs — doctors, rich men, poor men. strong 
men and frail men eager to do what they could to rescue the wounded and 
save the dead from being burned beyond recognition in the ruins. 

From the southern section of the city — from the ramshackle houses 
where the carnage was frightful — half-clad children and women and men 
came running, crying shrilly in their terror. The foreheads of some of 
them showed red wounds. Some fell in dead swoons. Children made 
motherless in*the night clung to strange women for protection. 

The disaster was too vast for quick realization. It took time for full 
comprehension — for the complete picture of the horror to take form in 
one's brain. 

There was the noblest part of the city destroyed — its fine buildings 
smashed or tottering, or, if they still stood firmly after the giant wrench 
at their foundations, there was the new element of fire darting, circling and 
sneaking upon them. 

And worst of all, under the smoking mounds hundreds and hundreds 
of dead, and some, it was well realized, were still living, but buried beyond 
finding and absolutely doomed. 

DYNAMITING BEGINS. 

The police, the firemen, the citizen volunteers, were out in droves. 
But they were almost helpless. They stood in chagrin before the hydrant. 
The broken water mains mocked the men. They could draw no water 
from the hydrants. 

The situation was one of bitter irony. Destruction had to be fought 
with destruction. There was nothing to do but get dynamite to work. 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 61 

To set off great blasts in the path of the flames and thus open gaps over 
which the fire might not leap. But the fire did sail over such gaps time 
and time again. 

Mayor Schmitz sent a call for aid to Oakland. Its firemen came. He 
sent a call for aid to the United States soldiers at the Presidio. Washing- 
ton had already heard of the disaster and General Funston and his two 
.regiments of soldiers marched into the city. They picketed the streets. 
They formed guards about the banks where treasures were stored. They 
formed guards about the collapsed Valencia Hotel and other buildings, 
where the dead were lying. In their rifles they carried death for the 
ghouls that might try to prowl among the dead victims of the catastrophe. 

All through the day it was much like night on account of the smoke. 

In the midst of the siege of fire were the Postal Telegraph and 
Western Union Buildings. The telegraph operators were heroes — difiident 
heroes. They simply stuck to their posts smiling. They were very prompt 
to say that they would not leave the buildings until the last wire had gone 
down. This happened quickly to the Western Union. 

ONLY ONE LONG DISTANCE WIRE. 

I made my way to the Postal Telegraph Building. I went upstairs 
littered with broken glass and fragments of wood. I got into an office 
littered with debris. But three men were at the telegraph keys. Two of 
them looked up and then stood. Those two wires were gone. 

But a third operator signalled me. His wire was still working. It 
was the only long-distance wire over which the news could be flashed to 
New York and Philadelphia and the other great centres of the world. 

As I stood beside him the third shock came. It was three hours after 
the big, destructive shock. The Postal Building swayed. Glasses cracked. 
A constant trembling went on. We could but expect that every next 
minute would find us crushed in the fallen building. It was swaying, 
creaking and cracking. But the operator regarded his work as a solemn 
duty. He stuck to his post. 

Suddenly a corps of firemen and police entered the room. They drove 
us into the street. The spread of the fire, they declared, demanded the 
dynamiting of the handsome Postal Building. 



62 WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 

A little later the detonation sounded. The Postal Building was a 
mound. The last long wire was down. 

The stratagem proved useless. The fire terror spread. It was relent- 
less. Now the next day, it leers luridly, broader and lighter than ever, 
lashed to a dancing fury by a strong south wind. The awful red wound in 
the city grows larger and larger. 

The lire had lapped its way through the streets of poverty and the 
streets of commerce to the water's edge. It set the ships speeding out into 
the harbor to escape destruction. It stripped the city of its line hotels, 
its theatres and many of its other most important buildings 

Where the smoke is not too stifling thick the hunt goes on for the 
wounded and the dead. The little files of those bearing the victims never 
cease to arrive at Mechanics' Pavilion and depart on new quests night and 
day, and all in front of the Pavilion agonized creatures begged for news of 
loved ones, but none could give them, and inside the big Pavilion, on its 
broad floor and in its galleries, were sights of horrible death and the sounds 
of human misery too awful for a man to look upon. 

KILLED BY EARTHQUAKES. 

Since 1137. when the first reliable records apparently were made of 
such disasters, 1,096,000 persons have lost their lives bv eartliquakes. ^Jliis 
total does not include the destruction wrought by kindred catastrophies 
like the burial of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

In periods earlier than the twelfth century the losses were doubtless 
correspondingly great, at least, but history is vague or silent on these 
events. It is supposed by scientists that many years of the earth's surface 
now quiet were in ancient and primeval periods the scenes of terrific shocks. 

No earlier earthquake remains recorded than that of 425 B. C, when 
the island of Euboea was formed. What loss of life there was then not 
even a legend relates. An earthquake accompanied the eruption of Vesu- 
vius in 79 A. D. In 742 A. D. Syria. Palestine and other regions were 
devastated by a series of shocks which destroyed more than five thousand 
towns and hundreds of thousands of persons. 

Sicily's earthquake in IT37 took fifteen thousand lives, and from that 
time history is replete with records of similar catastrophes. Earthquakes 



WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 63 

have occurred with greater frequency in volcanic districts, and particularly 
along the boundaries between great elevations and depressions. But such 
shocks are not confined to volcanic areas, and, indeed, they have often 
occurred in regions remote from them. One large zone particularly liable 
to earthquakes encircles the earth. It includes the Mediterranean lands, the 
Azores, the West Indies, Central America, the Sandwich Islands, Japan, 
China, India, Persia and Asia Minor. 

China's and Japan's losses have been enormous and earthquakes there 
have been of such frequency as to excite little comment. The Japanese 
scientists have been diligent students of these phenomena, and the number 
of their opportunities is evident from the fact that between 1885 and 1S92, 
when the closest observations were made, there were 8,331 earthquake 
shocks. In 1703 200,000 Japanese lives were lost in the earthquake at 
Yeddo. Her latest great disaster of that kind was in 1891, when 10,000 
persons perished in the Island of Hondo. 

EARTHQUAKES IN THE FAR EAST. 

China's sufferings from earthquakes have been almost equally appal- 
ling. In 1 73 1 there was a loss of 100,000 lives in Pekin and vicinity. In 
1830 Canton was shattered and 6,000 persons died. Lesser disasters have 
followed with great frequency till the death roll has become enormous. 

In six minutes the city of Lisbon was laid in ruins in 1755, when 
30,000 lives were lost. This great shock was felt over a wide area, even 
on the Baltic and in Great Britain. Silicia lost 60,000 persons in 1768; 
Naples, 40,000 in 1456, 70,000 in 1626 and 6,000 in 1805. Sicily had a 
terrible disaster in 1693, when 100,000 persons died. Kashen, Persia, was 
stricken in 1755 and 40,000 lives were lost. Panama lost 40,000 inhabitants 
in 1797; Aleppo, 20,000 in 1822; Ecuador and Peru, 25,000 in 1868. 
These are only the more costly disasters of the hundreds of earthquakes 
that have terrified and slain mankind. The Calabrian earthquake, begin- 
ning in 1783, continued for four years. 

In comparison with these stunning cataclysm": the losses in the United 
States have thus far been paltry. The first earthquake of which there is 
any record in this country was that in Inyo Valley, California. The most 
notable shock before that of yesterday was the one which on August 31, 



64 WHOLE BUSINESS SECTION DESTROYED 

1886, was felt from Florida to Canada and as far west as Iowa and 

Missouri. 

New Hampshire and Vermont felt a slight shock on November 2.y, 
1893. The Pacific Coast has experienced many tremors. Various other 
parts of the country have been agitated infrequently by slight agitations 
that have entailed no losses to life or property. 

The well-known author. Bret Harte, who resided a number of years 
in California, had a presentiment of the impending fate of the Queen City, 
as shown by the following lines: 

FATE. 

"The sky is clouded, the rocks are bare ; 
The spray of the tempest is white in the air! 
The winds are out with the waves at play, 
And I shall not tempt the sea to-day." 

"The trail is narrow, the wood is dim, 
The panther clings to the arching limb ; 
And the lion's whelps are abroad at play. 
And I shall not join in the chase to-day." 

But the ship sailed safely over the sea. 
And the hunters came from the chase in glee; 
And the town that was builded upon a rock 
Was swallowed up in the earthquake shock. 



CHAPTER HI. 

WOMAN REFUGEE AND OTHER EYE-WITNESSES RELATE 
THEIR THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

THE Los Angeles Examiner printed a thrilling story from Helen Dare, 
of its staff, who escaped from the stricken city to Oakland and tlxcnce 
to Stockton, where she telegraphed the following account : 

No one who has not seen such a disaster as this that has befallen San 
Francisco can have any realization of the horror of it, of the pitiful help- 
lessness and inadequacy of human beings thus suddenly cast before the 
destroying forces of nature. 

It was like a cataclysm. People cried out to each other like the coming 
of the end of the world. The oscillation was north and south in a succession 
of increasing and apparently renewed shocks, with a twisting movement 
that threw sleeping people out of their beds. 

In two minutes the great city was ruined. Many were killed, perhaps 
hundreds, perhaps thousands, for in the scattering, followed by confusion 
and fire, no one can estimate the number of deaths. No part of the city 
escaped from wreck, fire and death. Gas, water and electric power were 
shut off. 

Dynamite and gun cotton and even field guns are being used, blowing 
up whole blocks at a time. Thousands of people are sleeping out under the 
trees at Golden Gate Park. 

Perhaps my own personal experience will tell the story. Like thou- 
sands of others, I was awakened out of peaceful sleep into a paralysis of 
fear by the violent and continued rocking of bed, of floor, of walls, of 
furniture, by the sounds of crashing chimneys, falling ornaments and pic- 
tures, breaking glass and the startled screams of women and children. As 
if with a sudden impact, i felt my bed struck from the north and then heave 
violently. I jumped out, putting my hands out to steady myself, but the 
opposite walls seemed to move away from me. 

The floor rocked like a boat on a choppy sea, the violence of the motion 
6--S. F. 

65 



66 THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 

increased and seemed ever and again to take a fresh start. It seems as if 
it would never die — and yet it lasted but two minutes. My young son came 
running from his room, and, clasped in each other's arms, we stood in the 
doorway of my room waiting, waiting. 

With a relaxing quiver — like the passing of a sigh, the heaving earth 
and billowing floor sank into repose. We dressed, and through the disar- 
ranged furniture, over the broken glass and fragments of ornaments, we 
made our way out. 

The streets were full of persons in every stage of undress and excite- 
ment, one young mother in her night dress, clasping her eight-months-old 
baby in her arms and trying to warm it by wrapping her thin lawn garment 
around it. 

A few blocks from Mayor Schmitz's home, and a block from Mrs. 
Eleanor Martin's, the house where I have been stopping, is in the western 
addition, where, owing to the hills of rock formation the damage was least. 

CROWDS OF PERSONS CLIMBING THE HILLS. 

The swarming persons climbed the hills, their first fear being that a 
tidal wave would follow, and all eyes were on the bay, shining in the 
morning light, but not even the sea wall of the land that the Fair Estate is 
reclaiming from the ocean, was hidden by water. " 

I set out at once to see what damage had been done, finding it more 
appalling with every block I walked. My way led along Pacific and Van 
Ness Avenues, through the district of splendid homes of wealth and fashion, 
and not one of the long line of imposing houses but had suffered severely. 

The home of John D. Spreckels, at Pacific Avenue and La Guana 
Street, is one of the finest and proudest in the city and on it the parapet 
had cracked and crumbled and fallen like so much spun sugar out of a 
wedding cake. Blocks of cement had fallen from the entrance ceiling and 
at one of the upper windows a wan, white face peered from the rich lace 
curtains. 

At Rudolph Spreckels' handsome house, at Gough and Pacific Avenue, 
the lawn was riven from end to end in great gashes, the ornamental Italian 
rail leading to the imposing entrance was a battered heap. Rudolph 
Spreckels, his wife, his little son, his mother-in-law and sister-in-law and 
maid servants had set up their household on the sidewalks. 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 67 

The women were wrapped in rugs and coverlets and huddled in easy 
chairs hastily rolled out. They were having their morning tea on the 
sidewalk and the silver service was spread on the stone coping. At house 
after house of the wealthy and fashionable this scene was repeated. 

Turning into Van Ness Avenue, there on the left was St. Bridget's 
stone church at Broadway and Van Ness, with its tall towers fallen and the 
stone walls hanging loosely from the top. There on my right, a couple of 
blocks away, was St. Luke's Church, a total wreck, its tower of stone just 
a heap of waste. The churches have suffered greatly. 

St. Patrick's and St. Dominick's are wrecked and the old Mission 
Dolores of the Franciscan Fathers has the ancient tiles of its roof crushed 
in, though the adobe walls still stand, but the steeple of the new church 
beside it in toppling over crushed in its roof. 

FLEE IN BARE FEET. 

All along the two avenues of fashion, not a brick chimney was left 
standing. In every block there are tons and tons of wreckage. Claus 
Spreckels' home on Van Ness Avenue had its cornices and parapet crumbled 
like a pie crust. Walter Hobart's house, that was built for Amy Crocker 
when she became Mrs. Porter Ashe, has all one side wrecked. 

The St. Dustan, at Sutter and Van Ness, one of the smartest apart- 
ment houses, built of stone, has its top story tumbled off and its solid walls 
cracked. At McNutt's Hospital, nearly opposite the St. Dunstan, on Sutter 
Street, the patients who could be moved had been brought to the door and 
sidewalk, and anxious inquirers were rushing up to get news of dear ones 
within who are bedridden or recently operated upon. 

The new national bank on Polk Street, near Sutter Street, is a wreck 
with its plate glass windows in splinters on the pavements. All Sutter 
Street as I look ahead seems an avenue of ruin. The Granada, a big fash- 
ionable hotel, has its top and front shattered. Whole houses, I can see, are 
tumbled down. 

I must pick my way among the middle of the streets between the heaps 
of ruins. I find the streets swarming with people, white, wide-eyed, still- 
awed, and others again exceedingly voluble in their terror, telling to every 
one their story of what has happened to himself. 



68 THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 

Automobiles are tearing and honking madly in every direction, filled 
with frightened men and women and children, some dressed as though for 
a promenade, others partly dressed or wrapped in bed clothes. Never were 
stranger automobile parties than these. 

I see one little woman carrying her baby, her tear-wet face clinging to 
its baby cheeks, and she wears only her night dress and a kimona, and her 
tender bare feet patter across the sidewalk from a mansion door to an 
automobile. 

Here again is an old, old woman, with wrinkled face, paper-white, 
somebody's grandmother, she is — and she is being trundled along in an 
mvalid chair, her family with hastily made bundles of clothes and valuables, 
all about her. Great clouds of smoke rise dull and dark on every side and 
red, angry flames shoot long tongues through them. 

MIGHTY ROAR OF FLAME. 

I hear the roar and crackling of fire unrestrained, and with every blow 
I feel the heat on my cheeks and the cinders and ashes sifting down upon 
me. When I come to Powell Street I see the St. Francis Hotel still stand- 
ing and the cinders and brands pouring upon its roof. Remember, this is 
only 7 o'clock. In Union Square the grass is covered every inch of it with 
frightened, huddled people, who have sought the open. 

Kearney Street and Montgomery Street are highways of confusion. 
The poor, south of Market Street, thus suddenly thrown out, are in exodus 
toward Telegraph Hill, dragging and trundling such household goods as 
they have managed to save. 

Here are boys and a thin, flat-chested woman trundling a sewing 
machine along. A drawer of it falls out and they halt to gather up the 
precious scattered spools. Poor little seamstress, this is her all now. 

Here is a wagon fitted with bedding and cooking utensils, a crying 
woman and a baby on the seat, a bird cage dangling at the tail and two 
men taking the part of horses. Then a crazy night hawk hack, a white- 
faced woman dragged from her sick bed in it, fainting in the arms of 
another woman. 

Then a big road machine, screeching along, a red. fat-faced man 
standing up in it mopping his brow, his eyes searching for the buTldTng 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES (li) 

that holds his business, and Httle street boys darting in and out, snatching 
what they can get, throwing that away and snatching more hke children 
wantonly picking wild flowers, 

I see one little creature capering with three hats on his head that he 
had taken from a show window. Before the banks and safe deposit vaults 
men and boys employed there are busy pulling out drawers full of ledgers 
and valuable papers, carrying them away in their hands, loading them into 
wagons and even into wash buckets. 

SCENES IN HER FLIGHT. 

On the step of one bank, with the fire only a block away, I see a man 
wringing his hands and crying aloud : "Will he never come. Will he 
never come with the combination? My God, why doesn't he come?" 

I can't get to the Postal Telegraph office for the dead line of the 
police and the crowd. I find the Western Union wrecked with bewildering 
clerks repeating, "All wires down, all wires down !" to the pale-faced and 
dirty-faced men and women who want to send messages out reassuring their 
friends. 

Every few seconds there is a booming sound that adds to the horror, 
the confusion and fearsomeness of the scene. It comes from the dynamite 
detonations where they are trying to check the spread of the fire by blowing 
up luildings. A theatrical man comes running along telling how the Grand 
Opera House has fallen in and is on fire with all Conreid's grand opera 
settings and the singers' beautiful things going up in smoke. He laughs 
idiotically, poor chap, and says : "Sudden close of the opera season, isn't 
it?" The Majestic Theatre is a ruin, too, with both walls fallen in. 

The newspaper offices still stand, but this is only 7 o'clock, and with 
their power cut off and no way to get off the extras that would sell like 
hot cakes. I see before the door of every one my fellows gathered in 
silence, for once, and dazedly looking on. It is too awesome a scene even 
for the newspaper men. 

I try to make my way to the ferry, first down one street and then 
down another, leading to the water front. Each one as I try, from Post 
to Washington, is closed by fire or wreckage, and there is no way throusfh. 
On Washington Street, opposite the old post office, a building has com- 
pletely collapsed, and under its edges are horses struggling and dying. 



70 THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 

At last I find an open way on the next street, and with the warmth of 
the blaze of water front saloons on my back I hurry across the upheaved 
street and twisted car tracks. This is made ground and the earthquake 
played with it as a child plays with a cardboard, crushing, creasing and 
bending it. On the bay side of the water front the old docks have tumbled 
and look like so much kindling wood. The tower of the ferry building 
is destroyed and broken. The passengers stream aboard the ferryboat — th'*^ 
only boats running are the "Southern Pacific" — and turn to look back upon 
their city. 

From this point there is something colossal in the disaster that has 
befallen. A great cloud is rising magnificent and overwhelming in its 
proportions — growing ever black and blackest toward the ground, spread- 
ing wider and wider. The red flames shoot skyward through it and but 
emphasize its density and violence. 

PERILOUS TRIP TO STOCKTON. 

The Fairmount's marble walls gleam orange through the flames. The 
Call building rises like a sentinel and far beyond you can make out through 
the murkiness black splotches upon the green, the people hurrying to the San 
Bruno hills. On the Pine Street hill I can see a row of old ramshackle 
cottages that have slipped from their foundations into the street, apparently 
intact. 

On Telegraph Hill, on the highest place, the sky line is marked with a 
garb of upended fringe of the people who have sought refuge up there at 
the top of the streets. There are no trains moving other than the Oakland 
local when we get to Oakland, for there are no wires to send train de- 
spatches on. At last a train moves out to Stockton, taking its chance, and 
a few venture on it. 

It is 10 o'clock and we have nothing to eat and drink, but we give no 
thought to that. I plan to make my way to San Jose and telegraph from 
there, but by 1 1 o'clock we know that San Jose is wiped out. A few wan, 
rtxi-eyed refugees from San Jose are coming to San Francisco, and we 
meet them at Niles. 

"San Jose is flat on the ground," "San Jose is gone" — these are the 
messages they bring. All brick buildings are down there. 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 71 

The security of the rails was suspected and the train traveled cau- 
tiously. From East Oakland nothing was known of incoming trains or the 
conditions of the road. 

Collisions were imminent and every curve was breathlessly rounded. 
Each bridge and trestle was a new danger, and when the train crept into 
the Altamount tunnel it seemed as if no one breathed in any of the dark 
cars and a sigh swept through when the daylight gleamed at the other end. 

Coming from Oakland to Stockton the effects of the earthquake were 
apparent as far as Lathrope, lessening as we drew away from the Mole. 
Our train only crept along at times. 

The personal narratives of other sufferers are no less thrilling than the 
foregoing. Albert H. Gould, of Chicago, was one of three persons to 
arrive in Los Angeles on the first train from San Francisco. 

"I was asleep on the seventh floor of the Palace Hotel," he said, "at 
the time of the first quake. I was thrown out of bed and half way across 
the room. Immediately realizing the import of the occurrence and fearing 
that the building was about to collapse, I made my way down six flights of 
stairs and into the main corridor. I was the first guest to appear. Clerks 
and hotel employees were running about like mad men. Within two minutes 
after I had reached the corridor other guests began to flock into the court. 
Most all wore night clothing only. Men, women and children stood as 
though fixed. Children and women cried. The men were hardly less 
affected. 

CITY DOOMED. 

"I returned to my room and got my clothing; then walked to the offices 
of the Western Union, in my pajamas and bare feet, to telegraph to my 
wife in Los Angeles. I found the telegraphers on duty, but all the wires 
were down. I sat down on the sidewalk, picked the broken glass out of 
the soles of my feet and put on my clothes. All this, I suppose, took twenty 
minutes. Within that time, below the Palace Hotel, buildings for more 
than three blocks were a mass of flames, which quickly spread to other 
buildings. The scene was terrible. 

"The Spreckels Building, at Third and Market Streets, looked out of 
plumb. I remained in San Francisco until 8 o'clock and then took a fe -y 



72 THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 

for Oakland, but returned to the burning city an fiour a^id a half later. At 
that time the city seemed doomed. I remained a few minutes, then made 
my way back to the ferry station. 

"People by the thousands were crowded around the ferry station. They 
clawed at the iron gates like so many maniacs. They sought to break the 
bars, and failing in that turned on each other. After a maddening delay 
we got aboard the boat and crossed the bay." 

J. P. Anthony, a business man of Pacific Grove, arrived in Los Angeles, 
having made the trip from San Francisco by automobile. He left there 
at 6 o'clock in the evening. Mr. Anthony was the first eye witness to bring 
direct information from San Francisco. He said that he was sleeping in 
his room at the Ramona Hotel, on Ellis Street, near Mason. He was sud- 
denly awakened at 5.23 in the morning. The first shock that brought him out 
of bed, he says, was appalling in its force. The whole earth seemed to heave 
and fall. The building where he was housed, which is six stories high, was 
lifted from its foundation and the roof caved in. A score or more of 
guests, men and women, immediately made their way to the street, which 
was soon filled with people. A panic ensued. Debris was showered into 
the street from the building on every side. 

Mr. Anthony said he saw a score or more of people killed. Women 
became hysterical and prayed in the streets, while m^n sat on the curbing, 
appearing to be dazed. It was twenty minutes before those in the vicinity 
seemed able to realize the extent of the catastrophe. The crowds became 
larger and in the public squares of the city and in empty lots thousands of 
people gathered. 

POLICE ^VARN PEOPLE FROM HOUSES. 

It was 9 o'clock before the police were in control of the situation. 
When they finally resumed charge, the officers directed their energy toward 
warning the people in the streets away from danger, many buildings being 
on the point of toppling over. 

Mr. Anthony said he was walking on Market Street, near the Empo- 
rium, about 9 A. M., when another severe shock was felt. At once the 
street filled again with excited persons and thousands were soon gathered 
in the vicinity, almost paralyzed with fear. 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 73 

Before the spectators could realize what had happened the walls of the 
building swayed a distance of three feet. The thousands of bystanders 
stood spellbound expecting every moment that they would be crushed, but 
another tremor seemed to restore the big building to its natural position. 
Mr. Anthony said that he momentarily expected that with thousands of 
others who were in the neighborhood he would be crushed to death. 

He made his way down Market Street as far as the Call building, 
from which flam.es were issuing at every window, with the blaze shooting 
out of the roof. A similar condition prevailed in the Examiner building 
across the street. He then started for the depot at Third and Townsend 
Streets, determined to leave the city. He found several thousand other 
persons headed in the same direction. All south of Market Street about 
that time was a crackling mass of flames. 

CUT OFF BY THE FLAMES. 

He made his way to Eighth and Market, thence down Eighth to Town- 
send and to Third Street and the entire section which he traversed was 
afire, making it impossible for him to reach his destination. He attempted 
to make his way back, but found that retreat had been cut off by the flames. 
He then went to Twelfth Street and reached Market Street again and 
walked down to the City Hall. San Francisco's magnificent municipal 
building had in the meantime caved in like an eggshell. The steel dome 
was still standing, but the rest of the $7,000,000 structure was a charred 
ruin. 

It was not yet noon, but the city's hospitals were already filled with 
dead and injured and all available storerooms were being pressed Into 
service. Dead bodies were being carried from the streets in garbage 
wagons. In every direction hysterical women were seen. Men walked 
through the streets, many of them weeping, and all with white, drawn 
faces. 

Transfer men were being offered fabulous sums to remove household 
goods even for a block distant. Horses had been turned loose to prevent 
their being incinerated in the burning buildings and were running at large. 
Women had loaded their personal belongings on carts and were pulling 
them through the city, the property being piled in the public squares. 



74 THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 

J. H. Ritter, of Houston, Texas, said : 

"I was in the Golden West Hotel when the first shock came. When 
I awoke, the hotel was rocking like a cradle. While I was dressing, the 
rear wall of the hotel fell into the dining-room. I was dressed by the time 
the second shock came and was going to rush out of the building, but the 
appeals of the women on the same floor stopped me. With some of the 
other men guests on the fourth floor, we got the women out. Most of the 
women were hysterical. 

"Many naked and half-dressed persons were in the streets, running 
about crying, screeching, wild with fear, while buildings toppled over and 
choked up the streets." 

R. A. Cole, a horseman, was at the Palace Hotel, when the quake came. 
He said: "I never saw anything like it. I was in the St. Louis cyclone 
and the Baltimore fire. They were nothing. I saw all San Francisco 
staggering and rocking and then in flames." 

Mrs. Agnes Sink said: *T was staying at 35 Fifth Street, San Fran- 
cisco. The rear of the house collapsed and the landlady and about thirty 
roomers were killed. I escaped by the roof, as the stairway had collapsed 
in the rear. Out in the street it was impossible to find a clear pathway. I 
saw another lodging house near ours collapse; I think it was at 39 Fifth 
Street, and all the inmates were killed. In a few minutes the entire block 
was in flames." 

EARTHQUAKE THEORIES. 

That San Francisco was the centre of the earthquake area was a mere 
coincidence in the workings of nature, is the opinion of Amos P. Brown, 
professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Pennsylvania. 
The theory advanced that a subterranean explosion took place under Mount 
Tacoma, in the State of Washington, is also given little credence by Pro- 
fessor Brown. 

"At present no one knows anything definite," said he, "and the best 
authorities can do is to form opinions based on their knowledge of the 
earth's surface and upon the likelihood of eruptions to break forth from 
the known mere shallow crusts of the earth's surface. 

"As has been said, the whole coast line of the Pacific ocean is more 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 75 

or less subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In some places the 
earth's surface is constantly rising and in others it is sinking at the same 
time. This movement is very gradual to be sure, and it takes years and 
years for the movement of an inch ordinarily. Sometimes this movement 
is rapid and at every such occurrence there is an earthquake. 

"A movement of a quarter of an inch in the solid sub-strata of rock 
will cause an earthquake. A movement of an inch will cause a tremendous 
earthquake which will shake down buildings of wood and stone even as 
happened at San Francisco. How large a movement there was along the 
Pacific Coast no one can now tell. 

"As the surface rises in one place it lowers in another. The molten 
lava which composes the centre of the earth moves into the cavity caused 
by this rise and runs from the place of depression. The earth is a solid. 
Whenever the greatest pressure is brought to bear, then a sinking occurs, 
and conversely a rising is made where there is the least resistance. The 
Cascade Mountain range has been rising for years, and it is very probable 
that some sudden movement caused a crack which occurred directly under 
the San Francisco district. 

FURTHER DISCOVERIES NECESSARY. 

"The theory that so much was taken out of the earth by Mount Vesu- 
vius at the late eruptions that a depression occurred at the other side of the 
world is possible. However, it is not probable. Science knows of no such 
facts as that, and to advance the theory as a fact would be impossible until 
some such actual discovery is made. 

"The earth has a diameter of about eight thousand miles. Vesuvius 
hardly cast out enough lava and ashes to make a very great difference. 
The theory is easily answered by the instance of the eruption of Mount 
Pelee several years ago. The lava cast out there was much greater than at 
Vesuvius, and there was no subsequent earthquake. 

"As no reports have come from Mount Tacoma, we can say nothing 
of an eruption there. I hardly think such a thing has occurred, yet it is 
surely possible. It seems that should there have been an eruption there the 
effect would have been more serious in that region than as far south as San 
Francisco. The best theory is that of the movement of the eartli's surface. 



76 THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 

"The whole western coast of America is subject to these movementi^ 
North America gets numbers of them in shght earthquakes. Central 
America has more. They are of more frequent occurrence in South 
America. Chili is visited by them more than any other country in the 
world. Surely tliis eruption has been more serious than any in recent 
years," 

William Easby, Jr., professor of civil engineering at the University 
of Pennsylvania, said that the fact that Leland Stanford, Jr., University 
was demolished shows in slight measure the force of the earthquake, 

''This University was constructed with the special purpose of with- 
standing such shock," he said. "The buildings were all built low and of 
massive foundations. To overthrow them took tremendous force." 

ORIGIN OF THE SAN FRANCISCO CALAMITY. 

Dr. G. F. Becker, chief of the division of physical researches of the 
United States Geological Survey, who lived many years in California and 
made a special study of seismological disturbances for the government, is 
quoted as saying that the earthquake in California had no relation to the 
recent eruptions of Vesuvius. He ascribed the "shake" to an unusually 
acute development in the process of "faulting," which has been going on 
along the Pacific Coast for thousands of years. This process consists in 
a readjustment of the rocks forming the crust of the earth. 

California is a chronic sufferer from earthquakes in mild form, he said, 
but the severity of the recent "shake" was due, in his opinion, to the fact 
that there had been a suspension of the shakes in recent years, and conse- 
quently the disturbance was due to an accumulation, or, in other words, 
a greater amount of earth was shifted, or "faulted," in this "shake" than 
has been the case before. 

"Along the coast of California, at a relatively short distance from the 
shore," said Dr. Becker, "the shoal water suddenly becomes very deep, and 
from a depth of a few fathoms changes abruptly to a depth of perhaps 
thousands of fathoms. This great submarine cliff extends all the way to 
Chili, the same geological formation being noted generally. It may be 
described as a great line of uplift in the earth's surface extending all the 
way from Singapore around to Valparaiso, 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 77 

''It is a line characterized by a deep adjoining abyss. That line is the 
great volcanic line and the great earthquake line of the world. It passes 
through the volcanic regions of Japan, through the Aleutian Islands, along 
the coast of Alaska and to Mount Shasta, which, though not an active vol- 
cano, is representative of the type, then extending to South America with 
characteristic volcanic developments. 

''Now there have been changes in the elevation along the line of this 
fissure, due to changes in te elevation and canged conditions inside the 
earth, and it is owing to these changes or 'faults' that the ground is shaken 
in California while the earth's rocks are readjusting them?elves. 

"In my opinion, there can be no connection whatever between the San 
Francisco earthquake and the Vesuvius eruptions. The first and conclusive 
reason is that Vesuvius is not on the same fissure of the earth as Califor- 
nia. Then, too, the shakes caused by Vesuvius could affect only a local 
area. 

"I would like to add that I do not think there is any danger of a 
recurrence of a severe earthquake of this kind in California for a very long 
period of time. Of course, there may be mild shakes for some time, but 
the readjustment of the earth's crust, in this disturbance, was probably so 
complete that there will be no change in the geological formation for many 
years." 

OPINIONS OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS. 

These views of Dr. Becker were practically endorsed by Prof. Charles 
D, Walcott, director of the geological survey; C. W. Hayes, director of 
geology in the Geological Survey, and Prof. James F. Kemp, of Columbia 
University. 

"The earth, take it as a whole," said Mr. Hayes, "is a very uneasy 
body, and is in a state of constantly changing equilibrium. When the 
foundations, deep down, change, there has to be an adjustment of the sur- 
face, like the break-up of ice on a river, and readjustment of the blocks to 
each other. Evidences of such changes are found all along the Pacific 
Coast. All through California it is quite evident that the earth's surface is 
continually adjusting itself to internal conditions." 

"The Pacific Coast line is one O'f the latest additions to the continent," 



78 THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 

said Professor Kemp, "and because of this is far more subject to seismic 
disturbances than any other portion of the country. Earthquakes are quite 
common, as is shown by the records quoted in the Geological Society's 
bulletins. According to these there were fifty-live such disturbances in 
California and elsewhere along the Pacific Coast in 1896, eighty in 1897 
and twenty-four in 1898, but none were severe, except that of March 30, 
1898. 

"The outer crust of the earth adjusts itself from time to time," he 
said, "and this is most probably one of those instances. Scientists do not 
yet fully understand the exact nature of this adjustment, but there are two 
suggestions as to the probable cause which are generally accepted — first, 
that on account of the radiation of heat from the earth its interior is shrink- 
ing and earthquake is the natural way the surface adjusts itself to the new 
conditions; second, that the earth is gradually slowing up in its rotation, 
that it is flattening at the poles and swelling at the equator, and that this 
causes the interior disturbance." 

SCIENTIFIC VIEWS OF EARTHQUAKES. 

Professor Marvin, the observer in charge o'f the San Francisco weather 
station, when asked if the earthquake at San Francisco cotild be connected 
with disturbances in Vesuvius, said he did not think there was any common 
cause. 

"The disturbances around Vesuvius were purely local," said he. "We 
had no record here of any vibrations in the earth's surface, and the general 
belief of scientists is that the phenomena there were wholly local. This 
earthquake at San Francisco is more general in character. It was undoubt- 
edly recorded in India and in England. You can see how rapidlv such 
earthquake waves travel when you note that the reports say the upheaval 
occurred in San Francisco at 5.13 or 5.15 and our first register of the 
vibrations began at 8.19. The first small waves of tremors travel much 
more rapidly than the larger waves, and the first record shows that these: 
small waves came across the continent in from four to six minutes. If there 
was .a tidal wave in consequence of the disturbance, it passed across the 
Pacific in a few hours, and was felt on the coast of Japan, probably. It 
must be remembered that we do not know the location of the cause of the 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF EYE-WITNESSES 79 

disturbance at San Francisco and cannot tell the direction of the greatest 
wave force. 

"There have been more earthquakes in 1905 than for several years 
past," continued Professor Marvin. "We have had numerous records here 
of late. We cannot undertake to explain the causes of the earthquake at 
San Francisco. There may have occurred what the geologists call a fault, 
or the subsidence of a portion of the earth's surface." 



CHAPTER IV. 

PITIFUL SCENES WHERE ONCE STOOD A GREAT CITY. 

THE wind, after having fanned the original conflagration in the district 
south of Market Street, turned when it had done its work there and 
swept the now^ irresistible fury of flame across Market Street, up the 
heights to the north, licked up the fashionable homes there as it had swal- 
lowed the hovels of Chinatown, and then turned again, spurring the hungry- 
destruction toward the west and all that was left of the Queen City. Water 
w^as lacking and dynamite was giving out. Fire-fighters fainted, were 
carried away exhausted or injured. 

It was resolved to make a last stand on the broad thoroughfare, Van 
Ness Avenue. A line of residences a mile and a half long was marked for 
sacrifice, in the hope that the flames might not be able to leap the space left 
by the ruins and the loo feet of the street. But almost before execution 
of the plan was begim the fire was across the avenue and the final act of 
San Francisco's annihilation was entered upon. 

But the plight of the living was little more happy than the fate of the 
dead, Thursday night 300,000 homeless people lay in the fields of the 
suburbs, on the beach, on the grass of Golden Gate Park, or wdiere they 
could find a sheltered corner in the less crow^ded streets. Others fled by 
train, by road, by boat to nearby towns, 50,000 going to Oakland, across 
the bay. A slight earthquake shock in the morning stimulated a fresh panic. 

Golden Gate Park was a great camp, over which tents and make-shift 
shelters were being raised. Families with a bed, cooking stove, a few 
chairs or whatever little furniture they were able to save, grouped miserably 
about all that remained of "home." 

Mercifully the w^eather was mild. The University of California, at 
Berkeley, was providing on its campus for an army of refugees flocking 
thither. 

The authorities were distributing food. Police and troops guarded 
groceries and bakeries, forbidding the sale of life's necessities otherwise 
than in small doles. Water was scarce, and grave fears were entertained 

80 



PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 81 

of the possibility of general and serious suffering from thirst. The bakeries 
and women of uninjured California towns were appealed to to bake and send 
loaves of bread to the stricken city. 

The United States Sub-treasury was destroyed. The coin and cur- 
rency in its vaults, however, were believed to be intact, and troops were on 
guard. The Mint escaped both the earthquake and the fire. 

MAGNIFICENT HOMES GONE. 

The magnificent residences on Nob Hill and Russian Hill were gone — 
among them the Stanford house with its art treasures; the Flood house, 
which cost $1,000,000; the Crocker residence, with its extensive stables. 
The Hopkins Art Institute was gone. The imm.ense new Fairmount Hotel 
was burned. St. Francis's Hotel, a gigantic structure, also succumbed. 
What few office skyscrapers outlived Wednesday's terror were now ruins. 

A Committee of Safety was formed to assist the Mayor. Order was 
preserved, though a few looters were shot, and horrible scenes were enacted 
among the ruins by dissolute revelers drunken on spoils taken from wrecked 
liquor houses. 

In the towns surrounding San Francisco great loss of life and property 
was caused by the earthquake and fire which followed it. Santa Rosa 
was a total wreck; from 200 to 500 lives were lost and 10,000 people were 
homeless, while not a brick or stone building remained standing. What 
v«^as left by the earthquake was destroyed by fire. 

In San Jose ten persons were killed, and the Hall of Records and the 
Hall of Justice were destroyed. The Lick Observatory escaped injury. 

In Alameda the loss of property is estimated at $200,000. No lives 
were lost, though a few persons were injured. 

East Oakland, Los Banos, Martinez, Healdsburg, Geyersville, Clover- 
dale, Hopeland and Ukiah reported severe damage, with loss of life. 

President Roosevelt, after a conference with officers of the American 

Red Cross, issued a proclamation calling upon the people of the entire 

nation to contribute to the relief funds. His appeal urged that all funds 

raised be placed in charge of the Red Cross, so that it would be expended 

to do the maximum good. 

Congress took immediate steps to make the Government's relief plan 
ti— S. F. 



82 PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 

effective by appropriating $i,o<X),cxx) for the use of the War and other 
departments. The resolution freeing the money 'from the Treasury was 
passed first in the Senate, carrying $500,000. This was doubled in the 
House, and the larger amount was accepted by the upper house and imme- 
diately made available by the President's signature. 

I'he Government's departments were busy all of Tliursday forwarding 
food, tents, hospital supplies and other articles most needed in the work of 
relief. Secretary of War Taft issued orders for the sending of supplies 
from many points, and made every effort to have them arrive at the earliest 
possible time in the stricken city, 

MANY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS READY 

The work of relief went on throughout the country and millions of 
dollars were raised for the sufferers. New York contributed three-quarters 
of a million dollars, and Chicago's two commercial bodies pledged $75,000, 
with the popular subscriptions to follow. 

Councils of many other cities made appropriations and telegraphed 
the amounts to San Francisco, and plans for big benefit entertainments 
were made. Sympathy was expressed in cablegrams from all parts of the 
world, and the people of Great Britain were ready to give substantial aid. 

Two relief trains from Philadelphia were speeding westward, laden 
with hundreds of army tents for the sufferers. They were sent from 
Schuylkill Arsenal on a rush order from the Quartermaster-General of the 
Army, More relief specials were to follow every day until the need was 
ended, the railroads carrying them free of charge. 

The next day after the calamity, Thursday, April 19, dawned on a 
scene of death and destruction. During the night the flames had con- 
sumed many of the city's finest structures and skipped in a dozen directions 
to the residence portions. They had made their way over into the North 
Beach section, and, springing anew to the south, they reached out along 
the shipping section down the bay shore, over hills and across toward Third 
and Townsend Streets. Warehouses and manufacturers' concerns fell in 
their path. This completed the destruction of the entire district known as 
far south as Market Street. 

After darkness thousands of the homeless were making their way with 
their blankets and scant provisions to Golden Gate Park and the beach to 



PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 88 

find shelter. Those in the houses on the hills just north of the Hayes Valley 
wrecked section piled their belongings in the streets, and express wagons 
and automobiles were hauling the things away to the sparsely settled 
regions. 

Hundreds of troops patrolled the streets and drove the crowds back, 
while hundreds more were set to work assisting the fire and police depart- 
ments. The strictest orders were issued, and in true military spirit the 
soldiers obeyed. The curious were driven back at the breasts of the horses 
of the cavalrymen, and all the crowds were forced from the level district to 
the hilly section beyond to the north. 

WATER SUPPLY CUT OFF 

The water supply was entirely cut off, and maybe it was just as well, 
for the lines of fire department would have been absolutely useless at any 
stage. Early in the morning it was seen that the only possible chatice left 
to check the flames lay in the use of dynamite. During the day a blast 
could be heard in any section at intervals of only a few minutes, and build- 
ings not destroyed by fire were blown to atoms. But through the gaps 
made the flames jumped, and, although the failure of the heroic efforts of 
the police, firemen and soldiers was at times sickening, the work was con- 
tinued with a desperation that will live as one of the features of the ter- 
rible disaster. 

The magnitude of the calamity became apparent when the sun rose 
and dissipated the pall of darkness that hung over the city. Looking east- 
ward from the heights in the central portion of the city, everything attested 
to the awful havoc wrought by earthquake and flame. Where once rose 
noble buildings, stood nothing but frail walls, tottering chimneys, heaps 
of twisted iron and huge piles of brick and mortar. Adding to the horror 
of the situation was the fact that the work of destruction had not reached 
its conclusion and that the flames were raging beyond control. 

It was with grief and horror that the community viewed the ruin. The 
people were seemingly half dazed by the magnitude of the disaster. Pos- 
sibility of famine presented itself with the coming of the day. At best 
the city never carried more than three days' supply of provisions and food, 
and with the wholesale districts and warehouses wiped out there was 



34 PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 

already a shortage of food. Prices were in most instances m(~>re than 
irehlcd. An Associated Press man was ohHged to pay -^5 cents for a small 
glass of mineral water in the Hayes Valley district. Not a drop of water 
was to be had there except bottled mineral w^ater. 

REGULATING SALE OF FOOD. 

Policemen were stationed at some of the retail shops, regulating the 
sale of foodstuffs and permitting only a small portion of goods to be de- 
livered to each purchaser, the idea being to prevent a few persons from 
gathering in large quantities of supplies. 

The military was unusually strict in observing the enforcement of the 
order to shoot all looters. One man on Market Street, who was digging 
in the niins of a jewelry shop, was discovered by a naval reserve man and 
fired upon three times. He sought safety in flight, but the reserve man 
brought him down, running a bayonet through him. 

The bodies of three thieves were found lying in the streets on the 
south side. Many reports of looters being killed by the troops were cur- 
rent. Concerted action of any kind, in fact, was out of the question, and 
almost every official was acting on his own responsibility, it being a physi- 
cal impossibility to communicate with superior authorities. 

On the day of the earthquake some sort of systematic communication 
could be had by means of automobiles, but the next, day every street was 
piled high with ruins, and to add to this trouble there was constant danger 
from falling walls. On miles of streets the front walls of ruined buildings 
still stood, swaying with the concussions of distant dynamite explosions 
and the rising winds. Frequently a crash of stone and brick, followed by 
a cloud of dust, gave w-arning to pedestrians of the danger of travel. 

All manner of reports of death and disaster came to the temporary 
headquarters of the authorities, but these reports w-ere received guardedly, 
allowance being made for the likelihood of exaggeration, due to the con- 
fusion that prevailed. 

The flight of residents from the city continued all day in the nature of 
a panic, the slight earthquake early in the morning accentuating their ter- 
rors. The ferryboats to adjacent counties were crowded to the utmost, and 
to the westward portion of the peninsula a constant throng of homeless 



PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 85 

persons carrying their portable household belongings, added to the colonies 
in the secure sand hills and the parks. Golden Gate Park and the unim- 
proved blocks of the district south and north of the park presented the 
appearance of tented cities, many varieties of shelter being improvised from 
bedding and blankets. 

The wind changed to the west on Thursday and the flames changed 
their devouring direction southward, and began eating their wide swath 
from the water front, on the north of Market Street, up to what is 
known as Nob Hill, an eminence that had been selected years ago by the 
multi-millionaires of the "bonanza days" upon which to erect their man- 
sions. This hill was surmounted by the Hotel Fairmount, just finished at 
a cost of over $1,000,000. The horror was universal when its destruction 
seemed inevitable, and when it finally took fire and routed the Public Safety 
Committee, who were directing the work of relief from that point. Steadily 
but surely the fire ate its way up the slope, consuming the homes of the 
late Mrs. Jane Stanford and the Hopkins Art Institute, built by Mark 
Hopkins, of Central Pacific fame. 

NQB HILL'S COSTLY RESIDENCES. 

The Stanford residence, which stood at the southwest corner of Cali- 
fornia and Powell Streets, at the brink of the hill, became the property 
of Leland Stanford, Jr., University upon the death of Mrs. Stanford. It 
contained many art treasures of great value. On the southeast corner of 
the same block stood the home of the late Mark Hopkins, who amasjed 
many millions with Stanford, C. P. Huntington and Charles Crocker in 
the construction of the Central Pacific Railway. The Hopkins home was 
presented to the University of California by his heirs, and it was known 
as the Hopkins Art Institute. 

One block west was the Flood home, a huge brownstone mansion, 
said to have cost more than $1,000,000. The Huntington home occupies 
the block on California Street just west of the Flood house. The Crocker 
residence, with its huge lawns and magnificent stables, was on the west 
of the Huntington home. 

From the upward slope the fire also took a direction northwesterly 
into the district that had been left untouched. This portion of the town 



86 PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 

embraced the Latin quarter, populated by persons of various nationalities, 

and the houses were all of flimsy construction. 

In the Hayes Valley district, south of McAllister and north of Market, 
the fire was confined up to noon on the west by Octavia Street and on 
the north by McAllister Street. In these confines the destruction was 
complete. Therein were located St. Ignatius's school and church, of 
which only the sidewalks remained. Of the Mechanics' Pavilion, the 
scene of hundreds of great political, social and sporting events, not a 
timber remained. Opposite it was the St. Nicholas Hotel, and it is simply 
a pile of ruined bricks. 

From this point down to the Oakland ferry an Associated Press man 
made his way through the menacing wall frontages, and climbing over 
hillocks of masonry and junk of all sorts in the middle of the city's greatest 
thoroughfare. The journey was heartrending, the scene appalling. On 
either side was ruin, nothing but ruin. To the south, in hundreds of blocks, 
hardly a building remained whole. In front of the post-office, on Seventh 
and Mission Streets, the ground had sunk for several feet. 

Across an alley from the postoffice stood the Grant Building, one of 
the headquarters of the army. This was gutted. Opposite the Grant 
Building, on Market Street, the ruins of the Hibernian Savings Bank 
loomed up, its former beautiful frontage transformed into hideous aspect. 
This was the great bank if the middle and poorer classes, and its loss 
caused greater sorrow south of Market street than perhaps the loss of 
any one institution. From this point down to the ferry the same story 
could be told of each successive block. 

WRECKS OF GREAT BUILDINGS. 

At 1 1 o'clock Wednesday night the north side of the street had been 
untouched, and hope had been expressed that the great Flood, Crocker, 
Phelan and other buildings would be spared, but they are included in the 
list of destroyed property. The Palace Hotel still stood, a huge monument 
to the awful disaster, its blackened walls and empty interior bearing little 
resemblance to the huge hostelry of a day before. 

The handsome and gigantic St. Francis Hotel, on Powell Street, 
fronting on Union Square, is a ruined shell. .This was one of the high steel 



PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CHY 87 

structures that had defied the terrible trembler, but it became another sad 
tribute to the completeness of the devastation that visited San Francisco. 

Among the other high sky-scrapers north of Market that fell prey to 
the flames were the fourteen-story Merchants' Exchange and the Mills 
Building, occupying almost an entire block, 

Chinatown by noon Thursday v/as a furnace, and the denizens of 
that quarter earlier in the day had their simple possessions bundled for 
departure. On the farther western side the flames cut a wide path to 
Van Ness Avenue. 

BODIES IN THE STREETS. 

Thursday morning there were twenty-seven corpses lying in Ports- 
mouth Square, gathered from various sections. It was said that elsewhere 
bodies were lying in the streets, there being no means available to remove 
them. In his travels down Market Street the Associated Press representa- 
tive saw three bodies lying in the debris, some rude covering having been 
thrown over them. 

The Committee of Safety, consisting of fifty prominent citizens, met 
with Mayor Schmitz and organized a Finance Committee, composed of 
James N. Phelan, F. W. Hellman, Claus Spreckels, J. Doweny Harvey, 
Thomas Magee, J. L. Flood, William Babcock, W. F. Herrin, M. H. 
De Young and Robert J. Tobin. Before the meeting had organized Claus 
Spreckels gave $25,000, Rudolph Spreckels $10,000, Harry Tevis $10,000, 
Gordon Blanding $10,000, Eleanor Martin $5000, J. L. Flood $5000, with 
a promise of more. 

Committees were appointed to take charge of the relief of the destitute, 
and the work assumed some system. 

Golden Gate Park was the main refuge, and supplies were sent there. 
Boats were provided to take people across the bay, and thousands were 
availing themselves of the privilege. The University of California, at 
Berkeley, volunteered to take care of 2000. 

Mayor Schmitz appointed his Committee of Fifty Citizens special 
officers, with full power to represent him and with power to requisition 
men, supplies, vehicles and boats for public use. 

Except for an occasional accident, no additional loss of life was 



88 PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 

reported. People had time to leave the burning- districts, though most of 

them lost all their belongings. 

A number of persons perished in the flames. At Seventh and Howard 
Streets a great lodging house took fire after the first shock, before the 
guests had escaped. There were few exits, and nearly all the lodgers 
perished. One of the women in the building leaped, with her child in her 
arms, from the second floor to the pavement below and escaped unhurt. 
She said she was the only one who escaped from the house. Such horrors 
as this were repeated at many points. 

One man was killed while trying to get a body from the ruins. Other 
rescuers heard the pitiful wail of a little child, but were unable to get 
near the point from which the cry issued. Soon the onrushing fire ended 
the cry and the men turned to other tasks. 

At Mechanics' Pavilion scenes of heroism and later of panic were 
enacted. The great frame building was turned into a hospital with a 
corps of fifty physicians. Nurses volunteered, and the Red Cross ship 
from the Government yards at Mare Island contributed doctors and sup- 
plies. Late in the evening, while the ambulances and automobiles w'ere 
unloading wounded at the building, the march of the conflagration up 
Ivlarlvet Street gave warning that the injured would have to be removed 
zt once. Every available vehicle was pressed into service to get the stricken 
into hospitals and private houses of the western addition. A few minutes 
ifter the last of the wounded had been carried through the door fire shot 
from the roof and the structure burst into a whirlwind of flame. 

COULD NOT BE WORSE. 

The situation was summed up in a telegram sent Thursday morning 
by General Funston to the War Department at Washington, It read as 
follows : 

"It could not be worse." 

General Funston added that Lieutenant Charles C. Pulis, of Wis- 
consin, attached to the coast artillery, had been mortally wounded. Lieu- 
tenant Pulis was commanding a company engaged in blowing up a building 
^t .Sixth and Jesse Streets. A fuse proved slow, and when Pulis tried to 
relight it the charge was exploded. 



PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 89 

General Funston earlier in the day had wired the War Department 
301 follows: 

"Your four dispatches received. Have already filed several for you. 
Impossible now to inform you as to full extent of disaster. City practi- 
cally destroyed. Troops have been aiding police patrolling and main- 
taining order. Martial law has not been declared. Working in conjunc- 
tion wtih civil authorities. Have not interfered with sending of any 
dispatches. You cannot send too many tents or rations. About 200,000 
people homeless. Food very scarce. Provision houses all destroyed." 

The following appeal for aid was sent out by Mayor Schmitz to 
Governor Pardee, and indicates the destitute condition of their people and 
their dire need of food and shelter: 

"Send all supplies and tents possible to Golden Gate Park. Have 
bakeries in small towns bake all the bread they can. We want bedding, 
food and tents." 

DECIDE TO BLOW UP RICH HOMES. 

As the fire continued to spread in spite of the heroic work of the 
men who were dynamiting buildings, the Committee on Safety called a 
meeting at noon and decided to blow up all the residences on the east 
side of Van Ness Avenue, between Golden Gate Avenue and Pacific 
Avenue, a distance of one mile. Van Ness Avenue is one of the most 
fashionable streets of the city, and it is very wide. 

Here the firemen, although exhausted from over twenty-four hours' 
work and lack of food, determined to make a desperate stand. They 
declared that should the fire cross Van Ness Avenue and the wind continue 
its earlier direction toward the west, the destruction of San Francisco 
would be virtually complete. West of Van Ness Avenue and north of 
McAllister constitute the finest part of the metropolis. Here are located 
all of the finer homes of the well-to-do and wealthier classes. 

The military was notified of the decision to dynamite the handsome 
Van Ness Avenue homes, and barrels of gunpowder, the only remaining 
explosive in the city, were taken from the Presidio, Fort McDowell, Alca- 
traz and other nearby posts. Hundreds of police, regiments of soldiers 
and scores of volunteers were sent into the doomed district to warn the 



90 PITIFUL SCENES OF A GREAT CITY 

people to flee. These heroically responded to the demand of law and went 
bravely on their way, trudging painfully over the pavements with the little 
they could get together. Every available wagon was taken by the military 
to carry the powder. 

But even the heroic measures decided upon did not check the flames, 
and the fire leaped across Van Ness Avenue and rushed upon the handsome 
homes on the west side. General Funston sent this dispatch to Washington 
at 3.30 P. M. Thursday: 

"Fire crossed Van Ness Avenue to the west at 3.30 P. M. Almost 
certain now that entire city will be destroyed. Have ordered troops from 
Monterey, and everything is going as well as could be expected." 

SUB-TREASURY DESTROYED. 

Later, as the flames continued to spread, General Funston wired to 
the War Department : 

"Official report at police headquarters this date states that the Sub- 
treasury is entirely destroyed by fire, with the exception of the vaults, 
which contain all cash on hand. Suitable guards have been ordered to 
protect this money." 

The fire marshal announced at 4 o'clock that more than two-thirds 
of the area of the city had been destroyed, and that there was no possibility 
of saving the rest. The following was the district north of Market Street 
devastated at that hour: 

Sansome to Market Street, to Sacramento, to Buchanan, thence to 
California, to Hyde, to Eddy, to Larkin, to Gough and to Market. On 
the south side of Market Street the fire extended along Market Street to 
Fourteenth and below the Southm Pacific tracks to the boundary. 

The Southern Pacific Hospital, at Fourteenth and Mission Streets, 
was dynamited, among other buildings, the patients having been removed 
to places of safety. The Linda Vista and the Pleasanton, two large 
family hotels on Jones Street, in the better part of the city, were also 
among those blown up to stay the progress of the conflagration. 

Thousands upon thousands of people had fled from the fire by the 
evening of the second day. They flocked to the ferries, to the parks, to 
the military reservation and to the suburbs. Residents of the hillsides in 



PItlFuL SCENES OF A GREAT CrfV 91 

the central portion of the city seemingly were safe from the roaring 
furnace that was consuming the business section. They watched the 
towering mounds of flames, and speculated as to the extent of the territory 
that was doomed. Suddenly there was whispered alarm up and down 
the long line of watchers, and they hurried away to drag clothing, cooking 
utensils and scant provisions through the streets. From Grant Avenue 
the procession moved westward. Men and women dragged trunks, packed 
huge bundles of blankets, boxes of provisions — everything. Wagons could 
not be hired except by paying the most extortionate rates. 

PEOPLE TRAGICALLY CALM. 

But there was no panic. The people were calm, stunned. They did 
not seem to realize the extent of the calamity. They heard that the city 
was being destroyed; they told each other in the most natural tone that 
their residences were destroyed by the flames, but there v\ias no hysteria, 
no outcry, no criticism. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE DOOMED METROPOLIS A MASS OF 
SMOLDERING RUINS. 

ONE of our well-known journals commented on the g^reat disaster as 
follows : 

"The tragedy that has smitten the people of San Francisco with dismay 
cannot be portrayed yet. It is too vast for the collection of details and the 
presentation of the awful picture complete. But for the suffering people, 
whose story is yet to be told, there is an immeasurable sympathy manifest 
as the best human instincts are aroused to action. 

"Where but a few hours before was a city imperial in its beauty, 
proud of its history, hopeful of its future, alert, fearless and palpitant with 
ambition, is a field of smoking w^aste, whose glowing edge creeps outward. 
Buildings that rose grandly, wrought in steel and costly stone, lie humbled 
into dust and ashes. Fair mansions, riven and leveled, have vanished. The 
former home of industry smoulders. Great factories and marts, their 
clamor stilled, have gone down in ruin. In the vaults of the bank the 
gold and silver are fused and buried. Where the temple reared to the 
worship of God sent its spire aloft or the school so lately stood are twin 
piles of desolation. 

"Sad as is the spectacle of m:.terial destruction, the mind turns rather 
to the people themselves. They are hungry and cold. Above them the 
roof is the murky sky, lit by the pyres of a city's hopes and labors. The 
supplies upon which they depended have been cut oflf. They suffer for food, 
water, clothing, light, shelter. No thought now 'for the comforts and 
luxuries of their lost homes. What shall they do? Whither shall they 
flee? Nearby towns that gladly would help are themselves aghast in the 
presence of death and disaster; the residents fled to the hills to pray under 
the stars, while in the distance they see the crumbled houses they dare not 
visit and the familiar streets their feet dare not tread. 

**The heart of humanity is touched at the knowledge that the helpless 
92 



THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 93 

cry for aid, and response is quick and warm. These fugfitives and 
homeless are our friends. We have broken bread with them. We have 
rested within their gates, finding there a gracious hospitahty. They are 
of our blood and kin. The obligation to respond to the need is stronger 
than any written law, stronger than the decree spoken by a king. It is the 
obligation that springs from a feeling more love than pity. It does not 
furnish the impulse with which one hands dole to a beggar, but the 
impulse which causes him eagerly to share with a brother and think no 
gratitude due. 

"Californians would be first to answer a call from the unfortunate. 
Now that they have been sore distressed, the all-pervading duty is to 
answer the call that comes from them. It is not the outcry of those who 
make demand. It is the silent call from people in the shadow of a great 
sorrow, contemplating the wreck of their desires, searching for their dead, 
looking with foreboding to the morrow. 

NOBLE RESPONSE FROM OTHER CITIES. 

"Let us do all that is possible to rob that morrow of some of its dark- 
ness by tribute rich and bountiful and freely bestowed. The great cities 
of the land nobly have started 'the work. New York, Philadelphia, 
Boston and other commercial centers are sending money and provisions, 
and will send. There is no limit to what they will do. No bound has 
been set to their contribution. Congress has made a large appropriation. 

"In faith and hope the world will disagree, 
But all mankind's concern is charity. 

"The occasion demands charity; from the basket and store O'f plenty, 
willing tithes, heaped and running over. Messages of sympathy from all 
the land are followed by the visible tokens of sincerity. Rivalry in giving 
is a fraternal contest, and none need fear going to an extreme. The 
individual of moderate means has an opportunity to aid, while the offering 
of philanthropists, ever looking for worthy objects, should reach unprec- 
edented figures. 

"Mortal can hardly discern in the San Francisco calamity aught that 
faith could construe into a blessing, yet out of it the people of San 



94 THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 

Francisco and its environs will learn that friendship leaps a continent to 
help, when help is needed, and that no community in the land is so remote 
that it may hear alone its burden of grief, or, unpropped, bend beneath 
the harshest blow of adversity. 

"The ability of American cities to recover from grievous calamities 
is well illustrated in the case of Baltimore. Notwithstanding the grreat 
fire which devastated the city in February, 1904, the police census just 
completed shows that the municipality has made a very creditable gain in 
})opulation. The last census taken by the police was in September, 1901, 
when the population was given at 517,035. The census just taken fixes 
it at 543,034. The city has made remarkable progress in rehabilitation 
in every w^ay since the disaster. The restoration of Baltimore is a typical 
instance of the tremendous pluck and energy and the hopefulness with 
which American cities rise from colossal misfortune. 

BIRTH OF A NEW METROPOLIS. 

"The same causes which account for the existence of a great city in 
a certain location continue to assert themselves whatever befalls, and 
another, greater and fairer municipality appears upon the ruins of the old. 
Galveston, precariously situated, met its fate in September. 1900, when 
6000 lives were lost and 7000 buildings, of the estimated value of $18,000,- 
000, were destroyed, an appalling catastrophe -for a city of that size, or of 
any size. A new city was immediately begun. The great seawall, intended 
to prevent a recurrence of the disaster, and the bustling and prosperous 
community which constitutes the new Galveston, are splendid monuments 
to American spirit in confronting a discouraging situation. 

"Doctor Johnson said that the conflagration of a city, with all 
its tumult of concomitant distress, is one of the most dreadful spectacles 
which the world can offer to human eyes. Such a scene was witnessed 
in Chicago in 1871, when 100,000 people were made homeless and property 
of the value of $200,000,000 was destroyed. A year later Boston passed 
through a similar direful experience. Both cities swiftly recovered from 
the awful destruction, and to-day the 'burnt district' is only distinguish- 
able from those which escaped the fire by its superior modern architecture. 

"Nearly $300,000,000 of property was wiped out in these two cities 



THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 95 

within thirteen months. How wonderfully the municipalities imme- 
diately affected survived the shock is a matter of history. At the moment 
the situation in San Francisco is exceedingly depressing, but not hopeless. 
The same energy and courage and 'faith that rebuilt other stricken American 
cities will, it is confidently believed, restore San Francisco in due season." 

From further accounts of the terrible disaster, we learn that the 
Presidio Reservation, the vast Richmond district of thousands of acres. 
Golden Gate Park and the surrounding hills resembled one vast camping 
ground. Tents and improvised covering were erected everywhere, fire- 
places built in the streets, beds and mattresses thrown down all over the 
section. The people thus situated were philosophical. 

There was, of course, ever present the danger that the food supply 
would run out. Every grocery in San Francisco was taken by the authori- 
ties and each family was being sold only one article at a time. In many 
places the police and military prohibited overcharging. General Funston 
announced Thursday morning that rations would soon reach the city, and 
then the people would be supplied from the Presidio. Bakeries had already 
been built within the reservation, and the bread supply therefore had not 
failed completely. 

THE MAYOR'S PROCLAMATION. 

Mayor Schmitz issued the following proclamation Thursday after- 
noon : 

"The Federal troops, the members of the regular police force and 
special police officers have been authorized to kill any and all persons 
engaged in looting or in the commission of any other crime. 

'T have directed all the gas and electric lighting companies not to 
turn on gas or electricity until I order them to do so. You may, therefore, 
expect the city to remain in darkness for an indefinite time. 

"I request all citizens to remain at home from darkness until daylight 
every night until order is restored. 

"I warn all citizens of the danger of fire from damaged or destroyed 
chimneys, broken or leaking gas pipes or fixtures or any like causes." 

From the water front the burned city could be seen in all its smoky 
nakedness. From the Pacific Mail dock to Vallejo Street, on the west 



96 THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 

side, a distance of two miles, wreckage and ruin was the rule. The filled-in 
land facing the ferry building was a succession of little valleys, some four, 
others six feet deep. The ferry tower itself was out O'f plumb, and the big 
building was much twisted by the earthquake. Looking up Market Street 
from the ferry building, the city was a smouldering mass of ruins. 

The day w^as bright and warm. The sun beat down on the tired 
workers and rescuers. There was scarcely any water to relieve the thirst 
of the suffering. The authorities were doing all in their power to remove 
the bodies of the dead, in order that a pestilence might be prevented. It 
had been necessary repeatedly to move the injured from places w^here they 
had sought refuge, for the fire spread with alarming rapidity. Water was 
the incessant cry of the firemen and the people ; one wanted it to fight, the 
others to drink, but there was only a scant drinking supply. 

Reports from the interior were most alarming. Santa Rosa, one of 
the prettiest cities of the State, in the prosperous county of Sonoma, was 
a total wreck. There were 10,000 homeless men, women and children 
huddled together. The loss of life was not to be estimated. 

As the last great seismic tremor spent its force in the earth, the whole 
business portion tumbled into ruins. The main street was piled many feet 
deep with the fallen buildings. Not one business building was left intact. 

This destruction included all of the county buildings. The four-story 
court house, with its high dome, was merely a pile of broken masonry. 

FLED TO FIELDS AND HILLS. 

What was not destroyed by the earthquake had been swept by fire. 
Until the flames started there was hope of saving the residence district. 
It was soon apparent that any such idea must be abandoned. This was 
appreciated by the citizens, and they prepared to desert their homes. Not 
even their household goods were taken. They made for the fields and hills, 
to watch the destruction of one of the most beautiful cities of the West, 

A resident of Santa Rosa wrote : 

"There is not a brick or a stone building left standing in Santa Rosa, 
and the devastated territory has been burned over. Dead bodies were 
being taken from the debris of wrecked houses on all sides. It is estimated 
that the death roll will foot up from 200 to 500," 



THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 97 

Messengers brought tHe saddest tidings of the destruction of Healds- 
burg, Geyserville, Cloverdale, Hopland and Ukiah. This report took in 
the country as far north as Mendocino and Lake Counties and as far west 
as the Pacific Ocean. These are frontier counties, and have not as large 
towns as farther south. In every case the loss of life and property was 
as shocking as in San Francisco. 

In East Oakland there was much damage. The Franklin School, in 
course of construction, was cracked and will have to be rebuilt. The 
damage was $50,000. The Rose Brick Company's works were wrecked. 
The 95-foot brick smokestack tumbled to the earth with a roar. 

Railroads were inactive and all wires were out of commission. Rail- 
road tracks across the marsh were twisted. The tall chimney at the old 
oil works fell across the South Side tracks at West Alameda. 

HUNGER AND THIRST ADDS TO SUFFERING. 

San Francisco was the city desolate. It seemed that the acme of its 
misery was reached when, at dusk of Thursday evening, flames burst from 
all sides of the beautiful Hotel Fairmount, the structure that, above every 
other, was apparently most strongly entrenched against the attack of the 
all-consuming fire. y\.nd surrounding that lofty pinnacle of flame, as far 
as the eyes could see to the south, to the east and far out to the west, lay 
in cruel fantastic heaps, charred and smoking, all that remained of the 
prosperous city. The metropolis of the Pacific Coast was in ashes. 

It was another day of an uneven struggle of man against uncon- 
querable elements. Acre after acre was ground into dust and ashes, despite 
the heroic perseverance of the firemen to limit the conflagration. At night 
there was a hope that the worst had been nearly reached and that, wtien 
morning dawned, the end would have come; but the liope was faint. 

San Francisco was not disconcerted. Its best and highest class began 

at once to plan for restoration and to care for the stricken ones, and the 

relief was immediate and effective. Total subscriptions of $180,000 were 

announced at night. Arrangements were made for the immediate relief 

of the needy. The baking of 50,000 loaves of bread daily began. Free 

transportation was provided by the Southern Pacific Railway to destitute 

persons desiring to go to interior points. 
7— S. F. 



gg THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 

All efforts to check the spread of the flames at Van Ness Avenue by 
blowing up a mile of buildings on the east side of Van Ness Avenue 
proved fruitless. The fire spread across the broad thoroughfare, and the 
'.entire western addition; which contained the homes of San Francisco's 
wealthier class, was now doomed. The destruction of the western addition 
of the city completed the work of the ravaging flames and marked the 
devastation of the entire city. 

MAD FLIGHT TO SAFETY. 

While the heroic fire-fighters were making the last stand at Van Ne»?i 
Avenue, panic reigned among the survivors in other parts of the city. Thr 
intense heat and the absence of water had been so terrible that scores 
became frantic and others dropped from exhaustion in the streets. The 
streets were still choked with refugees hurrying hither and thither, scramb- 
ling wildly for an avenue of escape. 

When the great rush of flames doomed the hotel and apartment house 
district along Ellis, O'Farrell and Suter Streets, early Thursday morning, 
men, women and children were rushing or staggering under heavy loads 
of luggage, some to the ferries at the water front in the hope of getting 
to Oakland and the east side of the bay, others to the hills, Golden Gate 
Park, the ocean beach, the Presidio and San Mateo Bay. 

The trip to the hills and to the water front was one of terrible hard- 
ship. Famishing women and children and exhausted men w^re compelled 
to walk seven miles around the north shore in order to avoid the flames 
and reach the ferries. Many dropped to the street under the weight of 
their loads, and willing fathers and husbands, their strength almost gone, 
strove to pick up and urge them forward again. 

In the panic many mad things were being done. Even soldiers were 
obliged in many instances to prevent men and women, made insane from 
the misfortune that engulfed them, from rushing into doomed buildings 
in the hope of saving valuables from the ruins. In nearly every instance 
such action resulted in death to those who tried it. At Larkin and Sutcr 
Streets two men and a woman broke from the police and rushed into a 
burning apartment house, never to reappear. 

Probably 200,000 refugees were struggling to get out of the burning 



THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 99 

city, and hourly the task was becoming more difficult, as the fire and heat 
cut off avenue after avenue of escape. The streets were filled with strug- 
gling people, some crying and weeping and calling for missing loved ones. 
Crowding all sidewalks in the threatened area were hundreds upon hun- 
dreds of householders attempting to drag some of their effects to places of 
safety. In some instances men with ropes were dragging trunks tandem 
style, others having sewing machines strapped to the trunks. Again, 
women were rushing for the hills, carrying on their arms only the family 
cat or bird cage. 

There was no aid for anyone from outside sources. In the awful 
scramble for safety fhe half-crazed survivors disregarded everything but 
the thought of themselves and their property. In every excavation and 
hole throughout the north beach householders were burying household 
effects, throwing them into ditches and covering the holes. Attempts were 
made to mark the graves of the property so that it could be recovered 
after the flames were appeased. Sufferers were invading the few buildings 
that remained in the hope of finding something to eat. They only desisted 
when warned or shot by the soldiers. 

At the ferry building a crowd of a thousand people were gathered 
begging for food and transportation across the bay. Hundreds had not 
even ten cents car fare to Oakland. Most of the refugees at this point 
were Chinamen and Italians, who fled from their burned tenements with 
little or no personal property. 

SUFFERING HUNGER'S PANGS. 

The suffering of many from hunger was pitiful. A mob of a hundred 
or more robbed a bread wagon and took the contents. The police made 
an attempt to interfere, but were powerless. Bread was arriving from 
Berkeley and Oakland and was being distributed in the north end of town 
by the relief parties organized by Mayor Schmitz. 

Thousands of people slept in the hills at night or stood gazing with 
grim faces on the lurid scenes below. Women and children and little babies 
in arms were huddled together with the injured. In Golden Gate Park 
the people were camping, with gnawing hunger the companion of all. The 
wails of the injured and the calls of frantic survivors for friends and 

LOFe. 



100 THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 

relatives who were missing w^ere pitiful. These crowds were constantly 
increasing, and the relief committees were doing all in their power to 
get bedding and food for the homeless. 

Expressmen were charging from ten to fifty dollars to haul a load of 
baggage or give any aid to refugees. Liquor stores in the north end were 
broken into by thieves, and hundreds of men were carrying away bottled 
liquors when soldiers arrived. The men had to be clubbed by the military 
before they would drop the bottles. Soldiers smashed the bottles on the 
stones and drove the mob at the point of the bayonet. 

When the mansions on Nob Hill, the Fairmount Hotel and Mark 
Hopkins Institute were approached by the flames, many attempts were 
made to remove some of the priceless works of art from the buildings. A 
crowd of soldiers was sent to the Flood and Huntington mansions and 
the Hopkins Institute to rescue the paintings. From the Huntington home 
and the Flood mansion canvases were cut from the framework with knives. 
The collections in the three buildings were valued in the hundreds of 
thousands. Few were saved from the ravages of the fire. 

Five hundred cadets of the University of California entered the city 
to aid in the enforcement of martial law. The young collegians had orders 
to shoot without warning those caught looting. In many parts of the town 
where the crowds of survivors were the wildest, it was almost impossible 
to get around save at the point of a pistol. The soldiers w€re disarming 
every person seen with a weapon. 

A MULTITUDE CRAZED BY THIRST. 

The only institution on Market Street able to do business was, accord- 
ing to a reliable business man, th>s Market Street Bank, at Seventh and 
Market Streets. Although the upper part of this building and every 
building near it was wiped out, the space occupied by the bank was 
undamaged. A sign posted in the window stated that the bank would 
be open for business as soon as it was considered safe. 

The greatest suffering among the thousands of homeless people was 
from thirst. Although the earthquake shocks had broken water mains in 
probably hundreds of places, strange to say, no water, or very little, at least, 
appeared on the surface of the ground. 



THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 101 

At Powell and Market Streets a small stream of water spurted up 
through the cobblestones and formed a muddy pool. At this pool hundreds 
of people knelt and drank, women as well as men. In many places men 
took as many bottles of liquor as they could carry out of the groceries, 
but few of them succeeded in getting away with thein. Wherever the 
soldiers saw a. man with a bottle of liquor they forced him to give it up at 
the point of the bayonet, and immediately smashed the bottle on the ground. 
The work of the regular soldiers in suppressing disorder is worthy 
of the greatest praise. Everywhere they showed the hig'hest degree of 
courage. They did not hesitate to shoot whenever they found anyone 
looting, and probably twenty victims fell before them during Thursday. 

HEROIC ^VORKING FIREMEN. 

While firemen were blowing up a cable power house at Suter and 
Polk Streets and the McNutt Hospital and the St. Dunston apartments, 
nearby, in a vain effort to check the flames, the steeple of St. Mary's 
Cathedral, a Catholic edifice, which had withstood the earthquake shock, 
caught fire. A fireman with a hose tied to his belt scaled the high steeple 
and played a stream on the flames and the blaze was extinguished. Thou- 
sands of people cheered the heroic deed and the handsome building was 
saved. 

When the fire on the easterly slope of Nob Hill was eating its way 
toward Telegraph Hill, the firemen finally managed to get a stream of salt 
water from the bay, pumped through a hose one mile long. This delayed 
the progress of the conflagration. 

The reply of a grizzled fire engineer, standing at the corner of 
O'Farrel Street and Van Ness Avenue, beside a blackened engine, may not 
have been as terse as Hugo's guard at Waterloo, but the pathos of it could 
have been no greater. In answer to the question of what he proposed to 
do, he said : 

"We are waiting for it to come. When it gets here we will make one 
more stand. If it crosses Van Ness Avenue the city is gone." 

This avenue is ninety feet wide, and the possibilities of checking the 
march of the flames there looked hopeful. Orders were given to concentrate 
every fire engine in the city at this avenue, to marshal soldiers, police and 



THE DOOMED METROPOLIS 
a'li workers, and make one last stand to save the remainder of the city. 
Huge cannons were drawn to the avenue to aid the dynamiters in blow'ing 
up the mansions of the millionaires on the east side of Van Xess Avenue. 
Every available pound of dynamite was hauled to this point, and the 
sight was one of stupendous and appalling havoc, as the cannons were 
trained on the palaces and the shot tore into the walls and toppled the 
buildings in crushing ruins. At other points dynamite was used, and 
house after house, the dwellings of millionaires, were lifted into the air 
by the power of the bellowing blast and dropped to the earth a mass of 
dust and debris. The work was dangerous, and many of the men. who 
kept working for forty-eight hours without sleep and scarcely any food, 
may have been killed while making this last desperate stand. 

FLIGHT FROM ST. FRANCIS HOTEL. 

By the burning of the St. Francis Hotel, which was consumed, 
$4,000,000 went up in smoke. This magnificent caravansery, wdiich at 
the time of its destruction was being enlarged at enormous expense, was 
filled with guests. The opera singers at this 'hotel, as well as those at the 
Palace Hotel, lost their all, with the exception of several violins valued at 
$12,000, which were saved from the flames at the eleventh hour by Nathan 
Franko, the musical director of the company. Costumes, scenery, personal 
belongings and musical instruments, everything, succumbed to the flames. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN FIGHTING FOR LIFE. 

THE following graphic account of the awful horror, written by an eye- 
witness, will have a mournful interest to all readers. It describes the 
scene the next day after the disaster, and we reproduce it just as it was 
written, at Oakland: 

San Francisco is apparently gone. To the west, across the bay, there 
is nothing but a great cloud of smoke, shot with streams of fire, and 
shaken now and then with the dynamite explosions by which they are 
trying vainly to check it. The fire is now everywhere. 

Every refugee who makes his way to us through the smoke cloud 
brings news of a new region burning and gone. As nearly as we cart 
learn, it has run all the way down the Mission Valley, taking the little 
houses of the working people, leaped up the California street hill, taking 
Chinatown in its path, and swept away the mansions which have crowned 
the city, and is breaking out sporadically in the western addition, where 
live the prosperous people. 

So it has spared nothing, for the business district is already gone, 
and the fire is reaching further and further every hour into the tenement 
district to the South. It has taken all the thickly crowded parts of the 
tenement district and is reaching toward the thinly scattered parts on the 
Potrero. How much wnll be left when the fires finally burn down and go 
out we cannot dare to guess. If there is anything left, it will be the hills 
of the western addition. It is hard to see how anything else, absolutely 
anything, can escape. 

Without sleep, many of us without food, we watched all night, all day, 
looking off toward that veil of f.'e and smoke which hides from us the 
city which has become a hell. Back of the sheet of fire and retreating 
backward every hour must be most of the people of the city, forced toward 
the Pacific by the gradual advance of the flames. 

Thank heaven for the open space of the F'residio and for Golden 

103 



104 HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 

Gate Park! The great park runs on its western extent past a thinly 
populated district. The flames cannot leap across that; it will shelter the 
inhabitants on their last stand. The Presidio, wide-spreading- and with 
only a few houses, is also safe, provided that the ^forests which form part 
of its area do not catch fire. There is at least an escape ; but half the people 
\vhom the fires have cut off from the water front and an escape from the 
peninsula are homeless. 

This afternoon a launch ventured out from Oakland water front and 
made the run as far as the Gate. The bay is overhung with smoke, but 
a change of the wind blew^ a rift as they passed the western addition, w^hich 
stands on the hills skirting the bay. Through this rift the passengers 
could see sporadic fires in a dozen places and the little black forms of men 
fighting the flames without wiater. 

for a rain! The time of heavy rains is over; but often at this 
season of the year there comes a gentle and soaking spring rain. We cannot 
see the heavens for the smoke; but the feel of the air is dry, and even 
that mercy seems to be denied. 

At intervals news comes to us from the refugees of what is doing 
behind the smoke cloud. It appears that the area of the flames spread all 
night. People wdio had decided that their houses were outside of the 
danger area, and had decided to pass the night, e\^en after the terrible 
experience of the shake-up, under their roo'fs, hourly gave it up and strug- 
gled to the parks. There they lay in blankets, their choicest valuables by 
their sides, and the soldiers kept watch and order. 

BUCKET BRIGADE FOR THIRSTY. 

There is no water in the mains, and the chief suffering w'as from 
thirst. The soldiers, disregarding the order not to let people move about, 
permitted bucket brigades to go forth and bring back water to relieve the 
women and the crying children. To reach the water it was necessary 
sometimes to go a mile to one of the four reservoirs which top the hills. 

1 talked to one man who slept in Alta Plaza. The fire was going on 
in the district south of them, and at intervals all night exhausted fire- 
fighters made their way to the plaza and dropped, with the breath out of 
them, among the huddled people and the bundles of household goods. The 



HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 106 

soldiers, who are administering affairs with all the justice of judges and all 
the devotion of heroes, kept three or four buckets of water, even from the 
women, for these men, who kept coming all the night long. There was a 
little food, also kept by the soldiers for these emergencies, and the sergeant 
had in his charge one precious bottle of whisky, from which he doled out 
drinks to those who were utterly exhausted. 

Over in a corner of the plaza a band of men and women were praying, 
and one fanatic, driven crazy by horror, was crying out 'at the top of his 
voice : "The Lord sent it, the Lord !" 

His hysterical crying got in the nerves of the soldiers and bade fair 
to start a panic among the women and children, so the sergeant went over 
and stopped it by force. All night they huddled together in this hell, with 
the fire making it bright as day on all sides; and in the morning the 
soldiers, using their sense again, commandeered a supply of bread from 
a bakery, sent out another water squad, and fed the refugees with a 
semblance of breakfast. 

There was one woman in the crowd who had been separated from her 
husband in a rush of the smoke and did not know w'hether he was living. 
The women attended to her all night and in the morning the soldiers passed 
her through the lines in her search. A few Chinese made their way into the 
crowd. They were trembling, pitifully scared and willing to stop wherever 
the soldiers placed them. This is only a glimpse of the horrible night in 
the parks and open places. 

RICH CARE FOR SHELTERLESS. 

We learn here that many of the well-to-do people in the upper residence 
district have gathered in the strangers from the highways and byways and 
given them shelter and comfort for the night in their living rooms. Shelter 
seems to have come more easily than food. Not an ounce of supplies, of 
course, has come in for two days, and most of the permanent stores are in 
the hands of the soldiers, who dole them out to all comers alike. But the 
hungry cannot always find the military stores, and the news has not gotten 
about, since there are no newspapers and no regular means of communica- 
tion. 

An Italian tells me that he was taken in by a family living in a three- 



106 HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 

Story house in the fashionable Pacific Avenue. There were twenty refugees 
who passed the night in the drawing room of that house, whose mistress 
took down hangings to make them comfortable. In the morning all the 
food that was left over in that home of wealth was enough flour and baking 
powder to shake together a breakfast for the refugees. They were hardly 
ready to leave that house when the fire came their way, and the people 
of the house, together with the refugees, who included two Chinese, made 
their way to the open ground of the Presidio. With them streamed a 
procession of folks carrying valuables in bundles. 

There came out, too, tales of both heroism and crime. The firemen had 
been at it for thirty-six hours under such conditions as firemen never before 
faced, and they do little more than give directions, w*hile the volunteers, 
thousands of young Western men who have remained to see it through, do 
the work. The troops have all that they can do to handle the crowds in 
the streets and prevent panics. The work of dynamiting, tearing down and 
rescuing is in the hands of the volunteers. 

A YOUNG MAN'S HEROISM. 

This morning an eddy of flame from the edge of the burning wholesale 
district ran up the slope of Russian Hill, the highest eminence in the city. 
All along che edge of that hill and up the slopes are little frame houses which 
hold Italians and Mexicans. A corps of volunteeer aides ran along the edge 
of the fire, warning people out of the houses. P)Ut the flames ran too fast 
and three women were caught in the upper story of an old frame house. A 
young man tore a rail frcnn a fence, managed to climb it, and reached the 
window. He bundled one woman out and slid her down the rail; then the 
roof caught fire. He seized another woman and managed to drop her or. 
the rail, down which she slid without hurting herself a great deal. But the 
roof fell while he was struggling with another woman and they fell together 
into the flames. There must have been hundreds of such heroisms and 
dozens of such catastrophes. 

We are so drunken and dulled by horror that we take such stories calmly 
now. We are saturated. 

There is a darker side, too. At least four men have been shot for loot- 
ing. There are no wharf rats in the world worse than those whicli infest 



HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 107 

the San Francisco water front. Terror and the presence of troops kept most 
of these people penned up in the Portsmouth Square with the Chinese on 
the first day. Then a pohceman shot one of them, and this had a good ef- 
fect. But to-day they broke loose, and, joining with the rescuers, began to 
go through the buildings. 

In the early afternoon one of these cattle came staggering out of a 
wine house on Green Street, his arms filled with champagne bottles, and 
already half drunk with brandy which he had found in the wreck, A 
soldier of the Thirteenth caught and held him. The orders of the troops 
are discretionary. The soldiers in charge stood him against the burning 
building and shot him before he knew what they were going to do. Three 
others were shot in the back on the run as they tried to get away with 
their plunder. There must have been a great deal more of this. 

FATE OF SPLENDID BUILDINGS. 

What can one say in detail of the disaster, except that the whole town 
not already burned must go? The business district, including all of the 
big structures which escaped the fire of the first day, is gone. To-day, the 
flames have taken the Merchants' Exchange building, brand new, and ten 
stories high, and Mechanics' Pavilion, which, after housing prize fights, 
conventions and great balls, found its last use as an emergency hospital. 
When it was seen that it could not last every vehicle in sight was impressed 
by the, troops, and the wounded, some of them frightfully mangled, were 
taken to the Presidio, where they will be out of danger and find comfort 
in tents. The physicians are working on, without sleep and almost without 
food. There is food, however, for the injured — the soldiers have seen to 
that. Even the soldiers are flagging and are keeping guard in relays, while 
the relieved men sleep on the ground where they have dropped. 

Early in the day the fire struck Union Square, the prettiest park in 
the city, where stands the St. Francis Hotel. On the way it burned up the 
house of the Bohemian, Pacific Union and Family clubs and the big retail 
shops along Post Street. The separate fire in the residence district took 
St. Luke's, the biggest Episcopal church. There is no word of the fate 
of the First Presbyterian, which stands only a block away, but this must 
have gone with St. Luke's. 



108 HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 

When day broke the fire was running into the Mission district. This 
is a low country wihch runs from the terminus of Market Street to the 
suburbs. In a general way it is the habitation of the aristocracy of the 
working class, although it is sprinkled with old-time residences, notably 
the house of James D. Phelan, a former Mayor of San Francisco. This 
went, too. Everything that is attacked goes. The dynamite only checks 
it. Nothing but rain can save the city now. 

SEEN FROM THE OCEAN. 

The Cliff House, which stood on a precipice over the ocean facing the 
rocks where the seals barked all the year round, was not much damaged. 
This news was confirmed to-day by the captain of a little schooner which 
shot the Gate without a tow and managed miraculously to make dockage in 
Oakland. Far out at sea he saw the city as a puff of smoke which became 
a blinding haze as he crawled nearer to land. He reports vessels standing 
off the heads, afraid to venture in because of the smoke and the lack of 
tows. All day vessels in the harbor, fearing that the fire might reach them 
in some way, pulled out through the Gate. There are rumors that some of 
them collided and sank. 

Along the wharves the fire tugs, of whose work little has been heard, 
have saved most of the docks. But now the Pacific Mail dock has been 
reached and is out of control, and finally China Basin, which was filled in 
for a freight yard at the expense of $1,000,000, has sunk into the bav anfl 
the water is over the tracks. This is one of the greatest single losses in the 
whole disaster. 

There is no use in going any further with the detailed news of the 
damage. Except the better residence district, which has not gone yet, 
but is going fast, and the outlying suburbs, you may include everything 
else in the list — lall gone, skyscrapers, business blocks, hotels, churches, 
public institutions, even hospitals. The Southern Pacific Hospital in the 
Mission went yesterday morning. It is reported that a set of improvised 
ambulances got the patients away safe, although no one knows here where 
they were taken. The regular City Hospital, so far out of town that it must 
be spared, is crowded, even to mattresses on the floors. Many bodies were 
left in the ruin of the Valencia Hotel, 17th and Valencia Streets, and 



HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 109 

they will now be consumed in the flames. In fact, this must happen all 
over the city. 

Anyone who knows San Francisco must realize that in the first tumble 
of the tenement house district south of Market Street many little crazy 
structures must have gone by the board. Each of these probably buried its 
two or three victims, and now the hot rush of flames has gone over the 
district, so that bodies will be consumed utterly. For this reason it is 
unlikely that anyone will ever know just how many people were killed. 
An estimate of the dead grows more and more difficult as the fire goes on. 

Not even the parks, the camping ground of the desolate city to-night, 
have been spared. Golden Gate Park is topped by a round hill, at the top 
of which there stood a great, open arcade, used as a playground for 
children. That is in ruins, and the roof of the tropical conservatory, the 
pride of the park system, is down. In Union Square, where stood the St. 
Francis Hotel and where many people slept last night before the flames 
reached it, the Dewey Monument, a high shaft of granite and bronze, has 
shifted from its base and is leaning like the Tower of Pisa. The troops 
kept people away from it all last night. 

The seat of city government and of military authority has shifted 
with every shift of the flames. Mayor Schmitz and General Funston are 
sticking close together and keeping in touch with the firemen, the police, 
the volunteer aides and the Committee of Safety through couriers. 

GUN COTTON USED. 

There are louder reverberations along the fire line to-night, and we 
know from this that the supply of gun cotton and cordite from the 
Presidio have been commandeered and that the troops and the few re- 
maining firemen are making their last stand at about Van Ness Avenue, 
which crosses the residence district, to save what remains of the Western 
Addition. The regular supplies of dynamite and giant powder are already 
gone, and a requisition was passed into the military authorities early in 
the day. 

Much damage has been done by ignorant, careless and premature 
use of explosives. This morning, when the fire reached the Municipal 
Building on Portsmouth Square, the nurses, helped by soldiers, got out 



110 HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 

fifty bodies in the temporary morgue and a number of patients in the 
receiving hospital. Just after they reached the street a building was blown 
up, and the flying bricks and splinters hurt several of the soldiers who 
had to be taken to the out-of-door Presidio Hospital with the patients. 

And the troops have shut down with iron hands on the city. For 
where one man was homeless last night five are homeless to-night. With 
the fire running all along the water front, few have managed to make 
their way over to Oakland ; the people are prisoners in the peninsula. 

There were barely enough soldiers to hold the people in last night, 
and now their work is multiplied by five. They are taking no chances. 
They are enforcing the rule against moving about, except to escape the 
flames, and no one absolutely can enter the city who has once left. All 
this we get second-hand from the refugees who have made their way over 
by boat and ferry. 

SAD PROCESSION COME IN. 

The horror of it has spread to Oakland; but we are hardly sensible 
of it in our contemplation of the greater horror behind that cloud of smoke. 
National Guardsmen, realizing the danger caused by the refugees piling 
up in Oakland, have put us also under practical martial law. Rooms in 
hotels would sell at ten times their regular price were there any to sell. 
There are few instances of extortion in this respect; the people in their 
present temper would not stand it. But every few minutes there float 
through the suburbs into town those processions of miserable, smoke- 
blackened, haggard, w^eeping people. 

Now and then you recognize some man, dressed like a tramp, dirty, 
dragging a miserable woman, as a prosperous business man or a sleek 
clerk whom you have known in San Francisco. They come to us hungry, 
mainly penniless, fairly begging something to eat from the public kitchens 
which the soldiers have set up in the streets. Public halls, the basements 
of churches and the squares have been set apart for their use. Such houses 
as hav^ accommodations to spare are being used for the s'ck, the wounded 
and the scorched who are arriving every hour. 

In addition to those injured by falling walls and by fire, many frail 
women and delicate children have broken down with exhaustion and with 



HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 111 

actual disease caused by the exposure. News came of one woman who has 
been dragged from park to park since the first shock and who was finally 
got out by boat last night, dying to-night with her new-born child, of a 
little girl dead with pneumonia, of a man suffering from internal injuries 
Who succumbed on the boat on the way over. 

Such was the pitiful story of agony and death that this eye-witness 
narrated. San Francisco sat in the waste of her ruins awaiting the time 
when the flames that had already taken out her vitals should have worn 
themselves out through the very lack of that fuel. Hope was gone. The 
whole city seemed doomed. With black ruin covering more than seven 
square miles in its very heart, the city now waited in a stupor the inevitable 
reign of starvation and possible anarchy that must crowd close upon the 
disaster. The flames were eating out the centnal residence portion about 
the Western Addition and fashionable Pacific Heights. 

After sucking dry even the sewers, the fire engines were either aban- 
doned or moved to the outlying districts in the vain hope that the water 
mains broken by the earthquake might be repaired in time to permit of a 
final stand being made ag^ainst the whirlwind march of the flames. 

"No more dynamite ! No more dynamite !" a fireman ran shrieking 
up Ellis Street past the doomed Flood Building at 2 o'clock Friday 
morning, and as he ran tears sprang from his smoke-smirched eyes. "No 
more dynamite !" moaned the crowd that stood in the glare of approaching 
flames. "No more dynamite and we are lost!" 

DUMB, HOPELESS DESPAIR. 

So at 2 o'clock, with the explosive exhausted and not a dozen streams 
of water being thrown in the entire fire zone, the stunned fire-fighters and 
the stupid people sat still to watch the remnant of the city burn. There 
was no help. Water gone, po\yder gone, hope even now a fiction, the 
fair city by the Golden Gate was doomed to be blotted from the sight of 
man. 

The stricken people, who wandered through the streets in pathetic 
hopelessness and sat upon their scattered belongings, reached the stage of 
dumb, uncaring despair. A city dissolving before their eyes had no signifi- 
cance longer. 



112 HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 

Marius sitting among the ruins of Carthage saw not such a sight as 
presented itself in the dim haze of the smoke pall across the bay. Ruins, 
stark naked, yawning at fearful angles and pinnacled into a thousand 
fearsome shapes marked the site of what was three-fourths of the total 
area of the city. 

There was no business quarter — it was gone. There was no longer 
a hotel district, a theatre, a place where night beckoned to pleasure. Every- 
thing gone. Only a part of the residence domain of the city remained, 
and the jaws of disaster were closing down on that with relentless deter- 
mination. All of the city south of Market Street, even down to Islais 
Creek and out as far as Valencia Street, was a smouldering ruin. 

Into the Western Addition and the Pacific Avenue heights three broad 
fingers of red were feeling their way with a speed that foretold the destruc- 
tion of a major part of the palaces of the city. There was no longer a 
downtown district. A blot of black spread from East Street to Oaklavia 
and 1)ounded on the south and north by Broadway and Washington 
Streets and Islais Creek, respectively. 

GRIM, BLACKENED RUINS. 

Not a bank stood. There were no longer -any exchanges, insurance 
offices, real estate offices, all that once represented the financial heart of 
the city and its industrial strength. Go up Market Street from the Ferry 
Building to Valencia Street and nothing but the black fingers of jagged 
ruins point to the sniake blanket that presses low overhead. Visit wbat 
was once California, Sansome and Montgomery Streets and you must 
ask a fireman to direct you out of the labyrinth of grim, blackened walls. 

Chinatown is no more. Union Square is a barren district. The Call 
Building is head above the ruin like some leprous thing, with all its windows 
like staring eyes that look upon nothing but a wilderness. The great 
Flood Building is a hollow shell. The St. Francis Hotel, one time place 
of luxury, is naught but a box of stone and steel. 

Yet the flames leaped on exultantly. They danced, they roared, in 
bacchanalian glee. They leaped chasms like a waterfall taking a precipice. 
Now they were here, now there, always passing on, on to the west and 
through to the end of the city. 



HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN lU 

Nob Hill the people of San Francisco call that first rise to the long 
abrupt hill which tops the city. Here, along two blocks of California 
Street, in the first flush of the wild middle period of San Francisco history, 
the Croesuses of the time built homes as pretentious as any in the country. 
Ill luck seemed to folow them. In few of the houses did the owners live 
for more than a short time, and three of the greatest have passed into 
the hands of public institutions. 

From the edge of Chinatown, marked by old St. Mary's Church, the 
California Street hill rises so abruptly that walking is difficult, and the 
only common carrier which can climb it is a San Francisco cable car. 
At Taylor Street it turns into a false summit and the street runs about 
level for two or three blocks. On the shoulder of this hill stood the 
Stanford mansion, a square three-story house of gray stone, built by 
Senator Stanford in the seventies. At the time when he was United 
States Senator from California he and Mrs. Stanford entertained lavishly. 
Then followed the death of their son, the retirement of Mrs. Stanford 
from society, and the founding of the Leland Stanford, Junior, University. 
After 1890 the house was hardly ever occupied, the Stanfords living at 
their country estate in Menlo Park or abroad. In her late life Mrs. 
Stanford gave one or two receptions there for the alumni and faculty of 
Stanford. 

, MAGNIFICENT GIFT TO THE UNIVERSITY. 

When, before her death, Mrs. Stanford turned over her whole property 
to the university, she gave this mansion, too, stipulating that she should 
have possession of it during her lifetime. After that it was to be used 
as an allied college of Stanford. The trustees had been debating ever 
since her death upon a proper use for it. The probability is that it would 
have been used as the foundation of a medical school, which Stanford 
now lacks. 

The next house up the street, and the greatest of its time in San 
Francisco, was the Mark Hopkins house. This, too, belonged to a uni- 
versity, for in the last ten years the University of California has held it 
as an art school. It was a great castle of dark gray stone, which stood 

above the city like a citadel. 
8— s. F. 



114 HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 

It occupied a block of land of its own, and the fall of the hill on that 
block is very abrupt. Below it, on the lowest point of the land, were the 
old stables, so set that a stone thrown level from the lowest basement door 
■would fall on the roof of the stables. Set on the side hill, it varied in 
height, but on its highest side was five stories. It w-as topped by a tower, 
from which there was a magnificent view on all sides of San Francisco 
Bay. 

The Hopkinses never entertained so lavishly as the Stanfords. After 
the death of Mark Hopkins his widow remarried, went East, and finally, 
carrying out the wishes O'f both her husbands, she gave the building to 
the University of California as an art school. In the basement and stables 
the university has maintained the best art school in the West. The house 
proper was used mainly for galleries and loan exhibitions. There, every 
year, the Art Association gave a Mardi Gras ball, which was one of the 
great social features of the San Francisco winter. 

MONEY TO REMAIN IN CALIFORNIA. 

Just across the street from the Hopkins and Stanford m'ansions stood 
the new Fairmount Hotel. When the Fair wnll contest was over, Mrs. 
W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., and Mrs. Herman Oelrichs, the principal heirs, 
announced that they would not take the money out of the West, In Cali- 
fornia James Fair had made his millions, and in California they shouM 
remain. Already they owned great parts of the wholesale district, now 
wiped clean by fire ; and a great part of the ready money they invested in 
the building of this hotel. 

It was of white stone, not high, but broad, and it stood on the corner 
of the hill, so that in the panorama of the hills as one approached on the 
bay this spot of white was the first thing which caught the eye. It was 
designed to accommodate about 500 guests in a manner equaling the best 
that New York could do. When it was started San Francisco people shook 
their heads and said that it w\as a folly; yet so great was the prosperity 
of the city and so great the demand for first-class accommodations that 
San Francisco men were preparing to lease it and open it, and were even 
thinking about an addition. 

Diagonally across the street from the Hopkins mansion stood the 



HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 116 

house of Collis P. Huntington, wide, substantial and elegant. This shared 
the fate of the others, Huntington built it, lived in it a little time, left it, 
and came back only for an occasional visit. In the end neither he nor his 
wife cared for it. Huntington was not popular in California in his later 
years, but when he died he cast coals of fire on his critics, for he letft the 
house to the people of San Francisco for charity. 

His widow and executrix had the idea of making it a hospital for 
women, but nothing had been decided and the house had stood with 
drawn blinds since his death. Further down the street were the residences 
of Henry and Will Crocker. In the latter was the best art collection on 
the Pacific Coast since the dispersion of the collection of Henry T. Scott. 
It includes — or included — many fine Corots and several canvases of Millet, 
including the famous "Man With a Hoe," 

Refugees at Oakland from San Francisco told thrilling stories of their 
awful experiences during the earthquake of Wednesday morning and the 
fire which followed. Among those who found themselves stranded were 
John Singleton, a Los Angeles millionaire, his wife and her sister. The 
Singletons were staying at the Palace Hotel when the earthquake shock 
occurred, 

DOLLAR FOR AN EGG. 

Mr. Singleton said of his experience : "The shock wrecked the rooms 
in which we were sleeping. We managed to get our clothes on and got 
out immediately. We had been at the hotel only two days, and left 
probably $3000 worth of personal effects in the rooms. After leaving 
the Palace we secured an express wagon for twenty-five dollars to take 
us to the Casino, near Golden Gate Park, where we stayed Wednesday 
night. On Thursday morning we managed to get a conveyance at enor- 
mous cost, and spent the entire day in getting to the Palace. We paid 
a dollar apiece for eggs and a dollar for a loaf of bread. On these and a 
little ham we had to be satisfied. We reached Oakland on a ferryboat, 
and are now trying to get back to Los Angeles." 

Mr. Singleton, like thousands of others in Oakland, found himself 
wtihout funds, and, as there were no banks open and none would be open 
until Monday, he had difficulty in securing cash until he met someone who 



116 HEROISM OF BRAVE MEN 

knew him. Persons who found themselves without money in Oakland 
were numerous, but those who were unable to buy food were being supplied 
by the local relief committees and by the various churches, which were 
thrown open to accommodate the homeless from across the bay. 

A Western Union telegraph operator who made a tour of San Fran- 
cisco sent the following report to the East : 

"The thousands who spent Thursday night out of doors were fairly 
comfortable, most of them being sheltered by tents. Considerable distress, 
however, was caused by a heavy fog which came up,during the night, and 
also by dew. Chinamen are in evidence about the ferry house by the 
thousands, all of them waiting anxiously to get out of the city, and all 
of them carrying big bundles. The principal food of those wlio remain 
in the city is composed of canned goods and crackers. The refugees who 
succeed in getting out of San Francisco are met as soon as they enter the 
neighboring towns by representatives of bakers, who have made large 
supplies of bread and who immediately deal them out to the hungry people." 

TUGS TO RESCUE OF CROWDS. 

Michael Williams, city editor of the San Francisco Examiner, made 
the following statement Friday : 

"Shortly before lo o'clock I boarded the Government steamboat 
'Governor Sternberg,' having on board members of the San Francisco 
Relief Committee, under orders from Colonel Reynolds, commander of 
the Twenty-second Infantry, to commandeer all available tugs along the 
water front to go to the rescue of at least 10,000 men, women and children 
congregated in the neighborhood of Meiggs wharf, who were menaced 
by the march of flames toward Telegraph and Russian Hills and the valley 
between. 

"Around Meiggs wharf there are several huge oil tanks, some of 
them containing at least 15,000 gallons of oil. If the flames reach these 
tanks fearful explosions will result. The people were flocking to the 
wharves and crowding into all available craft." 



CHAPTER VII. 

FAMINE AND PESTILENCE FOLLOW EARTHQUAKE 

AND FIRE. 

OVER the smoking- remnant of what was San Francisco hope dawned 
on the mornig of the third day. The ordeal of earthquake and fire 
had beerf passed. The perils of famine and pestilence remained to be 
faced, but the sons of the pioneers of forty-nine were facing them with 
undaunted hearts. 

For lack of fuel on which to feed, the miles of flame were gradually 
burning themselves out. They had eaten out the city's heart and had 
spared perhaps one-fourth of its outlying area. All else was a waste of 
ashes and tumbled masonry. 

Huddled in camps of refuge, bivouaced under the billowy smoke from 
their burnig homes, San Francisco's wealthy and poor alike arose from 
a night of horror such as few cities have witnessed since Nero burned 
Rome. Those who slept had slept the heavy sleep of exhaustion. It was 
a night haunted by a thousand terrors and punctuated by the crack of the 
rifle. The soldiers guarding the treasure vaults of the United States Mint 
and of the ruined bank buildings were alert. During the night they shot 
and killed no less than fourteen men who were seen prowling about, intent 
upon robbery, 

Joseph M. Myers, a local policeman, disputed the authority of a 
national guardsman who had told him to move on. There was a brief 
altercation. Then the soldier ran Myers through with his bayonet and 
Icilled him. 

From the three-story lodging house at Fifth and Minne Streets, which 
collapsed Wednesday morning, more than seventy-five bodies were taken. 
There were fifty other dead bodies in sight in the ruins. This building 
was one of the first to take fire in Fifth Street. At least one hundred 
persons were killed in the Cosmopolitan, in Fourth Street. The only 
building standing between Mission, Howard, East and Stewart Streets, is 
the San Pablo Hotel, which is occupied and running. 

117 



lis FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 

The sliot tower, at First and Howard Streets, wa5 g-one. This land- 
mark was built forty years ago. The Risdon Iron Works was partly 
destroyed. The Great Western Smelting and Refining Works eseaped 
damage, also the Mutual Electric Light Works, the American Rubber 
Company, the Vista Gas Engine Company and Folker Brothers' coffee and 
chop house. 

On entering his home in the early morning a policeman named Flood 
encountered a strange man, who attacked him like a maniac. Flood shot 
the intruder dead. A special policeman named Enyder also killed a man. 
but the details were not known. In the chaos and despair of the night such 
passing tragedies attracted scant notice. 

Not less than fifty men paid with their lives the penalty either of 
their cupidity or their indiscretion. One was shot by a guard for washing 
his hands in drinking water, a commodity that was being husbanded as 
sacredly as though it were molten gold. Another, who was a bank clerk, 
was shot by a soldier while searching after nightfall amid the ruins of the 
bank in which he had l)een employed, 

NIGHT OF FRIGHTFUL HORRORS. 

When dawn again revealed the relics of the ruined city, it ended a 
night of horrors such as few cities have ever endured in time of peace. 
Homeless and destitute, three-fourths of the populace had slept upon the 
ground of the city's parks and squares. Misery had leveled all ranks. 
\\'omen and children reared in luxury had gladly lain down on a pallet of 
straw, thankful if a bit of canvas could be had to stretch above them and 
screen them from the drifting smoke. 

Men whom their friends counted wealthy foraged in the morning 
for a cup of coffee and a roll to stay the hunger of their dear ones. In 
doing so they rubbed elbows with sodden beggars and with the outcast 
women of Chinatown. 

Golden Gate Park was the Mecca of the destitute. This immense 
playground of the municipality had been converted into a vast mushroom 
^t looked like one of those fleeting towns located on the border of a 
i>overnment reservation about to be opened to public settlement. There the 
w>mmon destitution and suffering had wiped out all social, financial and 



FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 119 

racial distinctions. The man who was a prosperous merchant was occupy- 
ing with his family a little plot of ground that adjoined the open-air home 
of a laborer. 

The white man of California had forgotten his antipathy to the 
Asiatic race and was maintaining friendly relations with his new Chinese 
and Japanese neighbors. The society girl who on Tuesday night was a 
butterfly of fashion at the grand opera performance was assisting some 
factory girl in the preparation of her crude breakfast. 

ALL RANKS LEVELED. 

Money had little value. Society for the time being had drifted back 
into primitive conditions. Food and shelter were its first and greatest 
needs. The family which had foresight to lay in the largest stock of 
foodstuffs on the i'lrst day of the disaster was rated highest in the scale 
of wealth. A few of the families who could obtain willing expressmen 
were possessors of cooking stoves, but more than ninety-five per cent, of 
the refugees were doing their cooking on little campfires made of brick or 
stone. Kitchen utensils that the week before would have been regarded 
with contempt were articles of high value. 

Many of the homeless were in possession of comfortable clothing and 
bed covering, but the great bulk of them were in need. The grass was 
their bed, and their daily clothing their only protection against the pene- 
trating' fog of the ocean or the chilling dew of the morning. Fresh meat 
disappeared Wednesday morning and canned foods and breadstuffs were 
the only victuals in evidence. 

Not alone were the parks the places of refuge. Every large vacant 
lot in the safe zones had been pre-empted, and even the cemeteries were 
crowded. A well-known young woman of social position, when asked 
where she had passed the night, replied, "On a grave." Hundreds of other 
homeless women and children slept upon bundles of hay on the wharves 
or on the sand lots near North Beach, some of them under little impro- 
vised tents made of sheeting, which poorly protected them from the chilling 
winds that swept in from the bay. 

At the foot of Van Ness Avenue, on the hot sands of the hillside 
overlooking the bay east of Fort Mason, sat a woman with four little 



120 faminp: and pestilence 

children, the youngest a girl of three ; the eldest a boy of ten. They were 
destitute of water, food and money. The woman had fled with her 
children from a home in flames in the Mission Street district and had 
tramped to the bay in the hope of sighting the ship, which she said was 
about due, of which her husband was the captain. Iieli)less and dazed, she 
liuddled her cliildren to her breast and refused to move. 

"He would know me anywhere," she said. She would not leave her 
\igil, although a young man gallantly offered the shelter of his tent, 
back on a vacant lot. 

TEAMS FIFTY DOLLARS AN HOUR. 

It was impossible to obtain a vehicle, except at exorbitant prices. One 
merchant engaged a teamster and horses and wagon, agreeing to pay fifty 
dollars an hour. Charges of twenty dollars for carrying trunks a few 
blocks were common. The police and military seized teams wherever they 
required them ; their wishes were enforced at revolver point if the owner 
proved indisposed to comply with the demands. 

Mayor Schmitz looked weary, but he was energetically at work at 
his desk, though he had had little or no sleep. A policeman reported that 
two grocery stores in the neighborhood were closed, although the clerks 
were present. 

"Smash the stores open," ordered the Mayor, "and guard them !" 

Care of the three hundred thousand homeless, hungry refugees gath- 
ered in the city's public squares and parks was now the main problem the 
local authorities have to solve. They must be fed, and bread, meat and 
drink in sufficient quantities were lacking, though the leading cities and 
towns throughout the country were exerting themselves to lend assistance 
and provisions were now being rushed toward them from many points. 

Three relief stations for the homeless were established by the general 
committee. These stations were the temporary homes of the homeless. 
They were at Golden Gate Park, Presidio and San Bruno Road. By 
order of the Mayor and the general committee all remaining stores were 
entered by the police and their goods were confiscated for distribution 
under police supervision. Caravans of provisions were on their way to 
the three relief stations. 



FAMINE AND PESTILENCE IL'l 

In the meantime the hills and beaches of San Francisco looked like an 
immense tented city. For miles through the park and along the beaches 
from Ingleside to the sea wall at North Beach the homeless were camped 
in tents, makeshifts rigged up from a few sticks of wood and a blanket 
or sheet. Some few of the more fortunate obtained vehicles, on which 
they loaded regulation tents, and they were therefore more comfortably 
housed than the great majority. 

HOMELESS AND HUNGRY. 

Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle looked like one vast camping 
ground. Fully one hundred thousand persons, wealthy and poor alike, 
sought refuge in Golden Gate Park alone, and nearly two hundred thousand 
more bivouaced at the other places of refuge. Relief work was started 
early. Thousands of refugees were in line in the morning before the 
California Street bakery. The police and military were present in force, 
and each person was allowed only one loaf. The Young Men's Hebrew 
Association's Hall, near Golden Gate Park, was stocked with provisions 
for the use of the needy victims in the adjacent fields. 

Thousands of members of families were separated and with no means 
of learning one another's whereabouts. The police opened up a bureau 
of registration to bring relatives together. Heroic deeds, many of which 
will never be known to the world, were done hourly. The overworked 
nremen, beaten back repeatedly, made helpless by lack of water, never 
surrendered. Hundreds of them worked on untiringly, without sleep and 
without food, fighting in a forlorn hope. 

Portsmouth Square became for a time a public morgue. Between 
twenty and thirty bodies were laid side by side upon the trodden grass 
in the absence of more suitable accommodations. When the flames threat- 
ened to reach the square the dead, most of whom were unknown, were 
removed to Columbia Square, where they were buried when danger threat- 
ened that quarter. 

Out at the Presidio soldiers pressed into service all men who came 
near and forced them to labor at burying the dead. So numerous were 
the bodies piled up that they were becoming a menace, and earlv in the 
day the order was issued to bury them at any cost. The soldiers were 



122 FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 

needed for other work, so, at the points of rifles, the citizens were com- 
pelled to take up the work of burying the dead. Some objected at first, 
but the troops tolerated no trifling, and every man who came within reach 
was forced to work at least one hour. Wealthy men, unused to physical 
exertion, labored by the side of workingmen, digging trenches in which 
to bury the dead. Many remained unburied, and the soldiers were still 
pressing men into service. 

Friday and Saturday were made legal holidays, so as to give the 
bankers of San Francisco time to be in a position to meet the demands of 
the depositors. The danger of a financial crisis, it was believed, would 
be averted. The State and banks of the United States in general tele- 
graphed guaranteeing support to local financial institutions, and arrange- 
ments were made whereby it could be stated every depositor would be 
paid in full. 

LOSSES OF INSURANCE COMPANIES. 

Insurance companies took up the question of losses. It was stated 
that the companies had decided, if possible, to pay dollar for dollar on all 
the losses, whether occasioned by fire or earthquake. This will mean, if 
the loss totals $200,000,000, as it is believed it will, that $110,000,000 
will be paid into the pockets of San Francisco realty owners, and with this 
as a start new structures will soon be in course of erection on the sites 
of old. 

The Firemen's Fund and the Home and Marine, both local corpora- 
tions, will, it was said, be the principal sufferers. The losses are divided 
among eighty insurance companies, and it is stated authoritatively all 
claims will be satisfactorily adjusted, and that no company will be so 
weakened that it will be forced to suspend. The Pacific Coast managers 
of the fire insurance companies which suffered by the fire met in Oakland 
to discuss the situation. 

The Call said that a prominent president of one of the San Francisco 
banks had wired directions to his manager to place $3,000,000 in the 
hands of the Citizens' Relief and Restoration Committee, to be used at 
its discretion in the work of attending the immediate wants of the stricken 
people. Subsequent subscriptions added $191,500 to the fund. 



FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 123 

Another series of fatalities occurred, caused by the stampeding of a 
herd of cattle at Sixth and Folsom Streets. Three hundred of the panic- 
stricken animals ran when they saw and felt the flames and charged wildly 
down the street, trampling under foot all who were in the way. One man 
was gored through and through by a maddened bull. Several others were 
killed. 

Explosions of sewer gas wrecked many streets and caused needless 
alarm among people, who mistook the upheavals for further earthquakes. 
A Vesuvius in miniature was caused by such an upheaval at Bryant and 
Eighth Streets. Cobblestones were hurled twenty feet upward and a cloud 
of sand filled the air. The work of clearing up the debris began at the 
water front in the business section. One hundred men were employed, 
under the direction of the Street Department. 

FLIGHT OF THE HOMELESS. 

Thre was no cessation in the exodus from the stricken city. All who 
could get away were leaving by whatever means they found possible. The 
ferry house presented a fearful scene. It was filled with women and 
children, who have but few articles that they have saved from the ruin. 
They were waiting to leave the city by the first boat they could get. The 
road leading to the ferry north and around the shore of the bay as far 
as Fort Mason was littered with all sorts of vehicles that were broken 
down 'Under their loads. They consisted of baby carriages, wheelbarrows 
and toy carts that were too weak to stand the weight of the freight with 
which they were loaded in going over the rough roads. Some of the 
abandoned vehicles still contained the effects of the fugitive citizens. 

The chief operator of the Western Union wired from the ferry house 
this message : 

"General Funston is giving out thousands of tents and is doing every- 
thing possible to relieve suffering. I had an escort take me through the 
parks last night. The people seeking safety there were fairly comfortable, 
but the heavy fog and dew at night are causing great distress. Tens of 
thousands of refugees are flocking into Oakland, Alameda and the other 
towns across the bay. They had been without food or water since the 
outbreak of the fire. All the bakeries in the small towns are being worked 



124 FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 

to their fullest capacity. The people still in the city are living on what 
canned stuff they can obtain, with a limited number of crackers. 

"The Chinese, whose settlement was destroyed by the flames last 
night, are in evidence by the thousand this morning. They carry big 
bundles and are waiting for the first boat to get to a place of safety." 

Residents of Oakland, Alameda and other cities across the bay ex- 
tended hospitality to refugees, who were coming in from the city by the 
thousand. In addition, churches and large halls were thrown open for 
their accommodation, a privilege of which many of the homeless and 
wornout sufferers gladly took advantage. 

FUNSTON FEARS FAMINE. 

General Funston telegraphed to Washington this message, with the 
request that it be given wide publicity : 

"Army headquarters has been established at Fort Mason, California, 
All clerks of department and division headquarters, as well as those of 
the various departments of the army that have not yet reported for duty 
to their respective chiefs, are requested to report at division headquarters. 
Fort Mason, as soon as possible." 

To feed and house the unfortunate residents of San Francisco who 
have suddenly been bereft of homes and means of livelihood is calling 
forth the best efforts of all persons in the City of Oakland. It was cal- 
culated that at least two hundred thousand persons had come to that side 
of the bay and were distributed among the homes of Oakland, Alameda 
and Berkeley. While hundreds found lodging with friends, there were 
the countless poor, who were dependent upon charity. The work of 
evolving a system for supplying the immediate wants was a matter in 
the process of organization. To get some sort of a scheme whereby those 
in need could get the necessities of life was the work of Governor Pardee, 
his staff, Mayor Mott and the local city government and civic organizations 

It was the general belief, however, that, despite all efforts, there woufd 
be great distress and that actual starvation stared many in the face unless 
immediate and whole-souled aid was forthcoming. The supply of food 
might last out the week, and then, unless it were received in large quan- 
tities, the city would be in a state of want. 



FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 126 

Immense amounts of supplies were consumed in the fire in San Fran- 
cisco, which was the distributing point for the cities about the bay and 
interior towns. This supply was swept out of existence, and what the 
resources of the State are was a matter that was the chief concern of those 
engaged in the relief work. The seizure of supplies coming in on the 
trains by the Relief Committee was authorized by Mayor Schmitz. 

Edwin Stearns, chairman of the Executive Committee, seized a car- 
load of flour containing 814 sacks. Of this amount twenty-five sacks 
were immediately sent to Idora Park, where there were a large number of 
homeless. Another twenty-five sacks were sent down to Adams Point, 
where the people were encamped under the trees. A carload of ice was 
also seized for the hospitals. A carload of potatoes was also taken. 

It is not the purpose of the committee to confiscate these goods, and 
the names of the consignees were taken in each case, and as soon as there 
were any funds available they would be paid for. The emergency, how- 
ever, was such that prompt and firm action in the matter was deemed 
necessary. Besides these seizures, Livermore sent in a wagon load of 
butter to the committee. 

SUPPLIES FAST COMING. 

Other cities were sending in supplies, and it was hoped the amounts 
would be sufficient. The supply station in Thirteenth and Franklin Streets 
was emptied as fast as goods were received. The demands could not begin 
to be supplied, and what would result when the stores of the city were 
empty was a matter past conjecture. Mayor Mott addressed a circular to 
the bakers of the cities of Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley, requesting them 
to continue work regardless of holidays. 

The bakers agreed to work their plants to their utmost capacity and 
to send all their surplus output to the Relief Committee. By working day 
and night it was believed thousands of loaves could be furnished daily. 
At the headquarters of the Relief Committee the actual detail of the work 
was being handled by committees, who had charge of the various branches 
of the work. There was a registration bureau, where all were asked to 
register their n?mes for the use of those wishing to find families or friends. 
Hundreds of inquiries were received for information. In hurried flights 



126 FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 

many families were separated and were at a loss to know in what direction 
to look for each other. The churches of the city were taking charge of the 
work of administering to the wants of the needy and hungry. 

THE GREAT DESTROYERS. 

Earthquake, fire, famine and sudden death — these are the destroyers 
that men fear when they come singly; hut upon the unhappy people of 
California they came all together, a hideous quartette, to slay human beings, 
to blot from existence the wealth that represented prolonged and strenuous 
effort, to bring hunger and speechless misery to three hundred thousand 
homeless and terror-stricken people. 

After three days the full measure of the catastrophe could hardly be 
taken. The summary could not be made amid the panic, the confusion, 
the removal of ancient landmarks, the complete subversion of the ordinary 
machinery of society. When chaos came again, and all the channels of 
familiar life were closed, and hunian anguish grew to be intolerable, 
compilation of statistics was impossible, even if it were not repugnant to 
the feelings. That so much was told — ^that narratives so graphic and so 
comprehensive should have been sent out to a compassionate world was 
wonderful. The service thus performed makes mankind ^a debtor to that 
press, often reviled and always undervalued, which did so much with 
conditions so harsh and discouraging. 

Other frightful catastrophes the world has known. The earthquake 
whieh dropped Lisbon into the sea, in 1755, and in a moment swallowed 
up twenty-five thousand people, was perhaps more awful than the con- 
vulsion which brought woe to San Francisco, When Krakatoa Mountain, 
in the Straits of Sunday, in 1883, split asunder and poured across the land 
a mighty wave, in which thirty-six thousand human beings perished, the 
results also were more terrible. 

The whirlwind of fire which consumed St. Pierre, in the Island of 
Martinique, and the devastation wrought by Vesuvius need not be used 
for comparison with the tragedy in California, but they may be referred 
to that we may recall the fact that his land of ours is not alone in its 
afflictions. 

But since the Western Hemisphere was discovered there has been in 



FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 127 

this quarter of the globe no violence of natural forces at all comparable 
in destructive fury with that which was manifested upon the Pacific 
Coast on April i8th. 

The earthquake in San Francisco, which crumbled strong- buildings 
as if they were made of paper, would have been terrible enough ; but 
afterward came the horror of fire and of imprisoned men and women 
burned alive, and then was added the suffering of multitudes from hunger 
and exposure. 

Public attention was fixed on the great city of San Francisco, but 
smaller cities in California have had their days and nights of destruction, 
horror and misery. Some have been almost destroyed ; others were partly 
broken, and without their borders, over a wide area, the trembling of the 
earth has toppled houses, annihilated property and transformed riches into 
poverty. 

LOSS OF LIFE VERY GREAT. 

The loss of life is very great. The money loss can never be computed, 
for the appraised value of the wrecked property will convey no notion 
of the consequences of the almost complete paralysis, for a time, of the 
commercial operations by means of which men and women earn their 
bread. We sincerely hope that the results of this overpowering calamity 
may not result in the future embarrassment of those who were allied in 
business ' matters with the interests centered in San Francisco. The 
sensitive nerves of commerce in our day reach far out over the world. 

When the weakness and the folly and the sin of men bring woe upon 
other men, there are plenty of texts for the preacher and no scarcity of 
earnest preachers. But here is a vast and awful catastrophe that has 
befallen from an act of Nature apparently no more extraordinary than the 
shrinkage of hot metal in the process of cooling. The consequences are 
terrifying in this case because they involve the habitations of half a million 
people; but, no doubt, the process goes on somewhere within the earth 
almost continuously, and it no more involves the theory of malignant 
Nature than that of an angry God. 

If we shall contemplate it, possibly we may be helped to a profitable 
estimate of our own relative insignificance. We think, with some notion 



128 FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 

of our importance, of the thousand million men who live upon the earth ; 
l)ut they are a mere handful of animate atoms in comparison with the 
surface, let alone the solid contents, of the globe itself. 

^^'e are fond of boasting in this later day of man's marvelous success 
in subduing the forces of Nature ; and, while we are in the midst of 
exultation over our victories. Nature tumbles the rocks about somewhere 
within the bowels of the earth, and we have to Jearn the old lesson that our 
triumphs 'have not penetrated farther than to the very outermost rim of 
the realms of Nature. 

A few weak, almost helpless, creatures, we millions of men stand upon 
the deck of a great ship, which goes rolling through space that is itself 
incomprehensible, and usually we are so busy with our paltry ambitions, 
our foul transgressions, our righteous labors, our prides and hopes and 
entanglements, that we forget where we are and what is our destiny. A 
direct interposition from a Superior Power, even if it be hurtful to the 
body, might be required to persuade us to stop and consider and take 
anew our bearings, so that we may comprehend in some larger degree our 
precise relations to things. The wisest men have been the most ready to 
recognize the beneficence of the discipline of affliction. If there were no 
sorrow, we should be likely to find the school of life unprofitable. 

DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN SYMPATHY. 

For one thing, the school wherein sorrow is a part of the discipline 
is that in which is developed the human sympathy that is one of the finest 
and most ennobling manifestations of the Love which is, in its essence, 
divine. In human life there is much that is ignoble, and the race has 
almost contemptible weakness and insignificance in comparison with the 
physical forces of the universe. 

But man is superior to all these forces in his possession of the power 
of affection ; and in almost the lowest and basest of the race this power, 
if latent and half lost, may be found and evoked by the spectacle of the 
suffering of a fellow-creature. 

The human family looks on with pity while the homeless and hungry 
and impoverished Californians endure pang. Wherever the news went, 
by the swift processes of electricity, there men and women, some of them, 




Photo.eraph showing the terrible effects of the earthquake and 
tire in one of the principal streets of the stricken city. 




FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF OAKLAND, which is just across the bay 
from San Francisco. This pholugraph shows the force of the earthquake. 






C 




rt 




u 




TJ 




c 




3 




O 




i- 




bii 




<v 




u 




O 




M-i 




<U 




J5 




4-1 




c 




• ^m , 




M-, :>, 




O.ti 


^ 


O o 


a 


«- u 


i-\ 


^•5 








4-1 •— 






c 


^-^ 


2 


O 


^ 


c 




^ o 


-^ 


ojt; 


3 


U o 


"*" 


Ui -; 


0) 


^Joi: 


■*^ 


c« 


o 


O (U 


T3 


•J?-^ 


<U 


:=; a; 


p 


aijz 




> ^ 


O 

L4 


r. b€ 


o. 


c c 


01 


o*^ 


XI 


u, -G 




<--( CJ 


•"^ 


-1-' 


'i 


> ^ 




Q^ ^ 


J3 


^ s- 


D. 


w§ 


ti O 


U- «- 


^ O 


bJ3 


II 


W 03 


•A 


X c 


C3 X 


Eh <u 


a a 
•-. o 
a ■- 


Q ^ 


i a 


< 


U J, 


^ 


a^' 


o 




H 


^"S 




'■s'S 


O 


31 0) 


3: 




t-^ 


-Zi 


^ 


1^ 


c 


o ~ 


q 


o< 


►^ 




o 



O 

■Si 

'A 



03 



O 03 

I* 

o '^ 

1- u 



O -^ dj 

o >.-^ 

Oj 



>. 



a 3 

K o 



< 



O x3 



a<j 






2 be 

•-< c 

U-i o 

I— I U_| 



6< S 




LJ 

I 

o 

_J 
D 
Q. 
UJ 



I- 
Ixl 
LJ 
DC 
I- 
C/D 

CD 



O 

I 
CO 



LiJ 
Q- 

o 
a. 



Z 
111 

o 

CO 




05 

> 

D 
C/D 
UJ 
> 



Z 
D 
O 



o 

z 



o 

I 
en 



LJ 
Q. 

o 

Q. 



LlI 
O 

z 
< 

I- 

Q 



- UJ 

if 

< 

U- z 

u 

I 
I- 

Ll 

o 

UJ 
CO 

D 

o 

I 

u. 

o 

CO 







o 
z 
< 

I- 

D 

LU 

I 



(/3 

D 

> 

D 
CO 
UJ 

> 

I- 
z 

D 
O 



o 



o 

I 

CO 

CO 

UJ 

_l 
a. 
< 



Ll 

o 



> 

UJ 

> 

LlI 

CO 

Q 
DC 

m 




SCENE OF THE TERRIBLE CALAMITY IN MARTINIQUE WHICH 
CAUSED THE DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE 




THE CRATER OF MOUNT SOUFRIERE, ST. VINCENT, THE ERUPTION 
OF WHICH DEVASTATED MUCH OF THAT ISLAND 



FAMINE AND PESTILENCE 129 

perhaps, hardly knowing where CaHfornia is, were sorry and willing and 
eager to help. There are fights within the family sometimes, when nation 
wars with nation, and all love seems to have vanished; but the world is, 
in truth, akin. "God hath made of ore blood all the nations of the earth," 
and the blood "tells" when suffering comes. 

The only thing that most men can do in this hour of trial is to send 
the money that means speedy succor from want, and from all civilized 
lands money has come in generous quantities. But however large the 
stream might be, there would never be enough to fill all the need ; and so 
we can appeal for more and more, each man giving a little, if he can give 
but a little, in the hope that the California, from which our first great 
flood of gold came sixty years ago, may have some of her treasure back 
again in the time of her great extremity. 



9— S. t? 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PRESIDENT CALLS FOR AID AND CONGRESS MAKES A 
GENEROUS APPROPRIATION. 

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT on Thursday called upon the people of 
the entire nation to join in giving aid to the stricken city of San 
Francisco. Congress adopted unanimously and with promptness a resolu- 
tion appropriating $1,000,000 for relief work, and the governmental de- 
partments, led by the War Department, were busy day and night perfecting 
and making effective the plans for relief. 

PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION. 

The President's proclamation was issued after a conference with Miss 
Mabel Boardman, of the American Red Cross. It follows : 

"In the face of so terrible and appalling a national calamity as that 
which has befallen San Francisco, the outpouring of the nation's aid 
should, as far as possible, be entrusted to the American Red Cross, the 
national organization best fitted to undertake such relief work. A spe- 
cially appointed Red Cross agent. Dr. Edward Divine, starts to-day from 
New York for California to co-operate there with the Red Cross branch 
in the work of relief. 

"In order that this work may be well systematized, and in order that 
the contributions which I am sure will flow in with lavish generosity, may 
be wisely administered, I appeal to the people of the United States, to 
all cities, chambers of commerce, boards of trade, relief committees and 
individuals to express their sympathy and render their aid by contributions 
to the American National Red Cross. They can be sent to Jacob H. 
Schiff, New York Red Cross treasurer, or other local Red Cross treasurers, 
to be forwarded by telegraph from Washington to the Red Cross agents 
and officers in California." 

Action for relief was the first work of Congress. The Senate quickly 
set aside the routine business of the opening and passed a resolution offered 
by Mr. Perkins, appropriating $500,000 to carry on the work of relief 

130 



PRESIDENTS APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 131 
through the W^ar Department. The resolution was sent to the House, 
where a substitute, offered by Mr. Tavvney, of Minnesota, was adopted, 
doubhng- the appropriation. This action was concurred in by the Senate 
itnd at 6 o'clock in the evening the President attached his signature. 

RESOLUTION OF AID. 

The resolution follows : 

"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America, in Congress assembled, that the Secretary of War is 
iii^reby authorized and directed to procure in open market or otherwise 
(,'absistence and quartermasters' supplies, in addition to such supplies be- 
jonging to the military establishment and available, and issue the same to 
;uch destitute persons as have been rendered homeless or are in needy 
fircumstances as a result of the earthquake which occurred April i8th and 
the attending conflagration ; and, in executing this joint resolution, the 
Secretary of War is directed to co-operate with the authorities of the State 
of California and the Mayors of the cities of San Francisco, Berkeley, Oak- 
land, Alameda and such other cities on the Pacific Coast as may have sus- 
f/iined damages ; be it further 

"Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of the Navy 
.■and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor are hereby directed to co-oper- 
ate with the Secretary of War in extending relief and assistance to the 
stricken people herein referred to, to the extent of the use of the naval 
vessels, revenue cutters and other vessels and Government supplies under 
their control on the Pacific Coast; be it further 

"Resolved, That to enable the Secretary of War to execute the pro- 
■»-isions of this joint resolution there is hereby appropriated out of any 
'n.oney in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated the sum of $1,000,000, 
^o be expended under the direction and in the discretion of the Secretary 
of War." 

Mr. Tawney explained that the larger sum was absolutely needed; that 
':ticretaries of other departments were included so that naval vessels, reve- 
nue cutters and the Fish Commission's boat "Albatross" could be used. 
The substitute was reported also on the ground that the amount should be 
doubled, and the Secretary of War should be relieved from any statutory 



132 PRESIDENTS APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 
provision requiring bids to be received for the needed supplies. The reso- 
lution was adopted ten minutes after its introduction. 

The resources of all the governmental departments were turned to the 
work of relief. The Secretary of the Treasury authorized the telegraphic 
transfer of $10,000,000 from the Sub-treasury at New York to San Fran- 
cisco. The cash was deposited in New^ York and immediately paid out on 
the order of San Francisco banks entitled to the same. 

Secretary Metcalf, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, in 
dispatches to the lighthouse inspector at San Francisco and to the officers 
of the Fish Commission, directed the lighthouse tender "Madrona" and the 
United States steamship "Albatross" to go at once to the stricken city 
and do everything practicable to aid the sufferers. The authorities at the 
War Department actively carried on the work which had kept Secretary 
Taft, General Bell and many others up most of Wednesday night, with 
the object of getting provisions and tents to the sufferers. Secretary Taft's 
great anxiety was to get food into San Francisco at the earliest moment, 
and his orders sent in the night were supplemented during the day by 
others. 

PLANS FOR GREAT REFUGE CAMP. 

Commissary General Sharp said that he was advised that the supplies 
could be shipped by rail to a point within thirty miles of San Francisco, 
and he was of the opinion that it v;as better to send them there where, as 
a last resort, a camp for refugees could be established, as all the persons 
In need of supplies could not remain in the stricken city. 

Instructions were sent to Portland and Seattle to buy rations in the 
open market and hurry them to the stricken city. The orders in all direc- 
tions were for the purchase of full rations. Candles were included in the 
supplies on account of the lack of lighting facilities in San Francisco and 
the surrounding country. Bacon, rice, coffee, sugar, beans and peas 
formed the greater part of the supplies to be sent. The Presidio and other 
army posts near San Francisco had only a limited amount of supplies on 
hand. Consequently the Government could not rely on these supplies to 
afford more than emergency relief to the thousands in need of food. 

Omaha, St. Louis and other Western markets were drawn on to sup- 



PRESIDENTS APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 133 
ply the immediate demands of the sufferers, as it was not thought advisable 
to exhaust the Hmited suppHes at Western army posts. General Elliott, 
commandant of the Marine Corps, was informed that the large storehouse 
of the Marine Corps, on Mission Street next to the theatre, was destroyed, 
together with its contents, consisting of clothing and other stores to the 
value of about $100,000, 

MESSAGES TO FUNSTON, 

General Funston was kept in touch with what was being done to send 
relief by the War Department. Early Thursday morning Secretary Taft 
sent this dispatch : 

"Your dispatch calling for tents and rations for 20,000 people received. 
Have directed sending of 200,000 rations from Vancouver Barracks, the 
nearest available point. Will give orders concerning tents immediately and 
advise you within an hour. Do you need more troops? Of course, do 
everything possible to assist in keeping order, in saving life and property 
and in relieving suffering and hunger by use of troops, materials and 
suppHes under your orders. House passed enabling resolution to-day and 
Senate will to-morrow. All railway and telegraph facilities surrounding 
San Francisco reported badly damaged and demoralized. Officers will 
accompany rations where necessary, in order to insure as prompt forward- 
ing and delivery as possible with orders to keep in touch with you when 
practicacble." 

This was followed shortly after by this message from Taft: 

"All available hospital, wall and conical wall tents will be sent at 
once by express from Vancouver, Douglas, Logan, Russell, San Antonio, 
Monterey, Snelling and Sheridan. Remainder will be sent from Philadel- 
phia depot. Little definite information thus far received as to limits of 
burned district or conditions. Wire details as comprehensively as possible." 

This telegram was sent by General Bell, chief of staff, to General 
Funston, by direction of Secretary Taft after l conference between Secre- 
tary Taft and Secretary Bonaparte : 

"Secretary of War directs me to inform you that the Quartermaster 
General has been directed to forward to San Francisco all available canvas 
in the possession of the army. The Commissary General has been directed 



134 PRESIDENT'S APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 

to ship 200,000 rations from nearest shipping points. Admiral McCalla, 
at Mare Island, will be .instructed to confer with you, and to furnish all 
food supplies that can be spared from the stores at Mare Island ; also to 
furnish any available canvas suitable for making improvised shelter." 

The A\'ashington Lodge of Elks passed resolutions of sympathy for 
the earthquake sufferers, and sent a telegram to the San Francisco lodge 
tendering financial and other assistance. A subscription of $10,000 for 
the relief was made by Robert Lebaudy, the French philanthropist, through 
the French Ambassador. This sum was made immediately available 
through the French Consul in San Francisco. The ^Var Department 
officers were making estimates of the losses sustained by the Government. 
I'he Quartermaster's stores in San Francisco were in rented buildings, 
and the loss in goods stored there by the Quartermaster's Department was 
roughly estimated at about $3,500,000. 

SYMPATHY FROM THE KAISER. 

The German Ambassador, Baron von Speck-Sternburg, called on the 
President and extended the condolences of the German Emperor. After 
leaving the White House the Ambassador said : 

"The German Emperor has requested me to express to the American 
people his profound and most sincere sympathy over the terrible disaster 
which has struck the western part of the United States. The Emperor 
feels sure that this catastrophe will create widespread sympathy and 
mourning among the German people." 

The following telegram was received at the War Department from 
William Mason Smith, president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange: 

"Many citizens of New Orleans, represented by the Cotton Exchange, 
desire to extend the most rapid and useful aid to San Francisco. We see 
that your department is in touch with General Funston, the Department 
commander, and we would be glad if you can tell us if we can best help 
by money or provisions by special train to San Francisco." 

Contributions by New York for San Francisco aggregated three- 
quarters of a million dollars, scarcely more than a day after the terrible 
catastrophe. Of this sum. it was announced at the Standard Oil Building, 
John D. Rockefeller subscribed $100,000. The same amount was raised 



PRESIDENT'S APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 135 
on the Stock Exchange, $50,000 being- pledged within fifteen minutes after 
the appointment of a collection committee. Mayor McClellan appointed 
a committee of 100 citizens to solicit contributions for the San Francisco 
sufferers. 

Women leaders of society agreed to lend their influence at patronesses 
for benefit performances. Subscription lists were also opened on the 
consolidated Exchange, on the Cotton, the Coffee, the Produce and the 
Metal Exchanges, and the sums offered reached into the thousands. Mr. 
Rockefeller made his contribution through his San Francisco agents, to 
whom he sent a telegraph message to distribute the money among the 
destitute. No other instructions were given. 

C. H. MACKAY'S $100,000 GIFT. 

Clarence H. Mackay sent this message to President Wheeler, of the 
University of California, at Berkeley, Cal. : "I understand that owing to 
the terrible catastrophe which has just overtaken San Francisco and that 
part of California, several of the university's buildings have been de- 
stroyed. Pray accept my deepest sympathy. I am wiring you to say that 
I shall be willing to subscribe $100,000 toward the erection of a new 
building. This is a time for all of us to pull together, and to show the 
world what California can do under adversity." 

Mayor Schmitz issued the following proclamation: 

"I congratulate the citizens of San Francisco upon the fortitude they 
have displayed and I urge upon them the necessity of aiding the authorities 
in the work of relieving the destitute and suffering. For the relief of those 
persons who are encamped in the various sections of the city everything 
possible is being done. In Golden Gate Park, where there are approxi- 
mately 200,000 homeless persons, relief stations have been established. 
The Spring Valley Water Company has informed me that the Mission 
district will be supplied with water this afternoon, between ten and twelve 
millions daily being available. Lake Merced will be taken by the Federal 
troops and that supply protected." 

Already San Francisco had turned her face resolutely toward the 
future. The plucky spirit of her citizens was voiced when Mayor Schmitz 
sent the following telegram to President Roosevelt: 



136 PRESIDENT'S APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 
To the President of the United States, Washington: 

"Generous contribution of $i,ooo,cxx) from the Federal Government 
for relief of destitute persons received and deeply appreciated. The people 
overwhelmed by your generosity. All of this money will be used for relief 
purposes. Property owners determined to rebuild as soon as fire ceases. 
City will immediately proceed to provide capital for the purpose of recon- 
structing public buildings, schools, jails, hospitals, sewers and salt and 
fresh water systems. The people hope that the Federal Government will 
at once provide ample appropriations to rebuild all Federal buildings on a 
scale befitting the new San Francisco. We are determined to restore to 
the nation its chief port on the Pacific. 

(Signed) "EUGENE E. SCHMITZ, Mayor." 

He also sent the following to Louis Cook, of New York: 
"Grateful for your general telegram. California heartily thanks you. 
We need tents, bedding and food supplies. We require comforters and 
blankets in large number. Thousands of our people are sleeping in the 
open air without sufficient covering. We particularly need adequate sup- 
plies of disinfectants to establish sanitary camps; also drugs and hospital 
materials. A committee of fifty has been appointed. 

"In your telegram you speak of ready cash. Would suggest that 
considerable of small denomination be sent. This is important as all our 
banking quarters are destroyed. We would greatly appreciate if New 
York bankers would arrange to co-operate with California bankers with a 
view of securing temporary relief, so that fiscal operations may be re- 
sumed at the earliest date possible. San Francisco will rebuild. We want 
to resume the transaction of our usual business in the shortest time 
possible." 

EPISCOPAL BISHOPS SEND OUT AN APPEAL. 

The followng letter, issued by Bishops O. W. Whitaker and Alexander 
Mackay-Smith, was sent to the clergy of every Episcopal church in Penn- 
* svlvania, to be read by them to their congregations: 

To the Clergy, Parishes and Congregations of the Diocese of Pemtsylvania'. 
"The appalling calamity which has befallen the people of California 



PRESIDENTS APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 137 
demands instant aid from every humane heart in the country. The Presi- 
dent of the United States has issued a proclamation requesting immediate 
contributions, and, under the advice of the authorities of all the cities and 
towns and villages, money is being gathered to relieve the distress. In 
jiccordance with this wave of popular sympathy which is sweeping through 
the land, we make our appeal to the warm hearts, and willing hands of 
Christian people to at once spring to the relief of these sufferers. 

"We urge upon you the necessity of making an immediate collection 
in your parish. To whatever other purpose you may have determined to 
devote your Sunday collection, we beg that you will put this aside for a 
moment and send whatever you may be willing to give to aid this pressing 
necessity. It is the voice of our own brethren that is calling upon us in 
their hour of trouble, and the reply should be instantaneous. 

"We trust that you will give immediate attention to this appeal, so 
that by the beginning of this ensuing week contributions may begin to 
pour in from every parish and mission in the diocese. 

"In the name of the Merciful Saviour we make this appeal, trusting 
that even the very children may be inspired to give their pennies to help 
our brethren in an hour of trial almost unparalleled in the history of the 
world. 

"Your friends and bishops, 

"O. W. WHITAKER, 
"ALEX. MACKAY-SMITH." 

Responding to the call of San Francisco and her sister cities, the 
people of the United States, through State and municipal governments, 
various fraternal and charitable organizations, and as individuals, poured 
out their riches for the relief of the earthquake sufferers. 

The War Department advised Secretary Taft that another million 
dollars was needed for the immediate work of the Department in San 
Francisco. New York, the money centre of the nation, was first in the 
work of charity, many princely sums having been given to the Relief 
Committee. 

Charles A. Peabody, acting for William Waldorf Aster, sent $100,000 



138 PRESIDENTS APPE.\L BRINGS A GENEROUS APFROl KlAllON 
to the Mayor oi San Francisco. The Board of Directors of the United 
States Steel Corporation. appropriated $100,000. The Standard Oil Com- 
pany g^ve $100,000. in addition to Mr. Rockefeller's private contribution 
of a like amount. The Harriman railroads jointly contributed $200,000. 

From Otta\va came the announcement that the Canadian Goveniment 
had appropriated $100,000 for the relief ^York. 

The Oriental Consistory' of the Mystic Shriners. which met at Chi- 
cago, decided that the $100,000 appropriated for the entertainment of the 
Shriners at the national encampment in Los Angeles be turned over to the 
relief of the San Francisco sufferers. Among the contributions in New York 
were $25,000 from William K. \'anderbilt and $25,000 from Kuhn. Loeb 
& Co. A man who refused to give his name handed $25,000 to Mayor 
]McClellan. In Boston a meeting of representative citizens voted to raise 
$500,000. and the State Legislature appropriated $100,000. In Chicago 
a big fund was raised, and several trainloads of provisions were started 
for San Francisco. 

RELIEF WORK WIDESPREAD. 

Reports from all over the country indicated the same ready response 
to the call of charity. Xot only were i ity and State governments appro- 
priating relief funds, but from the cities nearer the scene of the disaster 
trainloads of canned goods, provisions, meats, tents and clothing were 
started for the stricken community. The National Federation of Oiurches 
sent a call from its headquarters in Xew York asking that a collection be 
taken up in the places of worship of all the religious organizations. The 
National Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, the Royal Arcanum, 
the Modem Woodmen of America and many other fraternal organizations 
sent out appeals to their members to help the relief work. From even*- 
available point by railroad or boat the War Department hurried rations and 
tents to San Francisco. Ever}- hour the volume of relief funds grew, as 
there was hardly a city in the United States that was not actively engaged 
in the work. 

Cablegrams were recei\ed from Germany to the effect that the North 
Gemian Lloyd and the Hamburg American Steamship Lines had each 
contributed $25,000 to the earthquake sufferers. 



PRESIDENTS APPEAL BRINGS A GEXEROl'S APPROPRIATION 130 
News from London was that a meeting of Anierjoans. at whicli 
Ambassador Reid presided, pledged $100,000. Boston telegraphed $25,000 
to a Chicago packing house to have a trainload of provisions shipped at 
once to San Francisco. The Boston committee also wired to Spokane, 
Seattle, Kansas City and other Western towns to know what could be 
done in the way of the immediate shipment of supplies. Bishop Kenny. 
of the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine. Fla.. Bishop Harlley, of Colum- 
bus, Ohio, and other Catholic bishops ordered special collections in all the 
churches in their jurisdiction for the relief funds. 

President Roosevelt and his Cabinet devoted the greater pan of their 
semi-weeklv session on Friday to a discussion of the calamity which had 
befallen San Francisco. It was decided that Secretary Metcalf, who is 
a resident of Oakland, Cal., should proceed at once to the stricken city as 
a representative of the National Government. Secretary Metcalf left for 
San Francisco in the afternoon. 

NEWS FROM THE STRICKEN CITY. 

Speaker Cannon and Chairman Tawney, of the Appropriation Com- 
mittee, indicated there would be no delay in granting the appropriation. 
The following message reached the War Department in the afternoon: 

"The latest reliable information from San Francisco is that the resi- 
dence district from Post to Union Streets and from Octavia Street to the 
ocean shore is intact, and. it is believed, will be saved. Relief trains are 
arriving and will greatly mitigate the sufferings." 

President Roosevelt sent $1,000 to the Red Cross Committee. Sena- 
tor Knox, of Pennsylvania, gave $500. 

Every available vessel in the vicinity of San Francisco, whether it 
belongs to the navv. army, revenue cutter service, fish commission or 
lighthouse service, was directed to carry supplies of ever)' description to 
the stricken city and render other assistance, while ot^kers of the army on 
the Pacific Coast and elsewhere were given imperative instructions to ship 
tents, rations, medical and other relief supplies. Offers of assistance from 
abroad were ver}- gratifying to the President, but he felt the United States 
was able to care for the San Francisco sufferers, and contributions from 
foreign countries would be declined. 



140 PRESIDENTS APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 

Governor Pennypacker, of Pennsylvania, issued the following pro- 
clamation calling upon the people of Pennsylvania to contribute to the 
relief of the San Francisco earthquake sufferers : 

/;/ the name and by authority of the Commonwealth of Pemisylvania, 
Executive Departtiient : 

Proclamation. 

An overwhelming and heartrending calamity has fallen upon the city 
of San Francisco and neighboring towns. Homes and property are gone, 
and the bereft people are helpless amid desolation and want. 

Now, therefore, I, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, Governor of 
Pennsylvania, call upon the citizens of this Commonwealth to express their 
sympathy by sending out of the abundance of their means commensurate 
contributions to their kindred in distress, and I appeal to all corporations, 
associations and individuals alike to act with promptitude. 

Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at the city of 
Harrisburg, this twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
sand nine hundred and six, and of the Commonwealth the one hundred and 
thirtieth. 

By the Governor: 

Samuel W. Pennypacker. 
Robert W. McAfee^ 
Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

The splendid generosity of President Shibe and his fellow officials of 
the Athletic Base Ball Club, of Philadelphia, swelled by $639.39 the North 
Americans fund for the relief of sufferers from the California earthquake. 
After paying New York's share of the receipts for the game on the local 
American League grounds the home club turned over to the fund every 
dollar that had been paid for admission by those on the bleachers and in 
the grandstand. 

To this large sum must be added $23.80, donated by Joe Schroeder, 
the club's groundkeeper. Mr. Schroeder also had the concession for selling 
sandwiches, pretzels, peanuts and soft drinks. The $23.80 he turned over 
represented his entire profits on one day's business. Nobody had appealed 



PRESIDENT'S APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 141 
to Joe to perform this act of liberality in behalf of his suffering fellow- 
man. Joe didn't need to be asked. He simply walked up to The North 
American's representative, turned over a bagful of nickels, dimes and quar- 
ters, and said : 

"Add this to the fund. I'm sorry it isn't more. If my profits had 
been ten times as much, you'd got it all." 

Mr. Rockefeller's $100,000 donation does not represent, in proportion 
to his means, as much as "Joe's" $23.80. The same generous spirit that 
marked Mr. Schroeder's act seemed to inspire everybody connected with 
the club. All officials of the club, paid their way into their own grounds 
for the first time. The policemen on duty, who were paid by the club, would 
not accept their wages for the afternoon's work, and requested that it be 
turned over to the fund. 

When the money was paid over the manager said : "We never drew 
a check in this office that gave us more pleasure." 

MILITARY FORCE INCREASED. 

In the War Department it was regarded as significant that General 
Funston had called to his aid all of the troops at Monterey and Vancouver 
barracks in addition to those which were already at the Presidio. It was 
estimated that with all of these he would have under his command about 
3,500 men, and this number was deemed sufficient by the War Department 
to insure good order in the city. 

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Newberry, who w^as acting Secretary 
up to the time of the return of Secretary Bonaparte from Baltimore, sent 
orders to the Pacific squadron saying that the department expected all naval 
vessels to afford every aid in their power, and directing them to communi- 
cate with the Mayor of Los Angeles. At the same time Rear Admiral Con- 
verse, chief of the Bureau of Navigation, ordered the Collier Saturn at San 
Diego to proceed at once to San Francisco and report to Rear Admiral 
Goodrich. 

Mr. Newberry also addressed a note to the War Department, in which 
he said that orders had been issued to the navy to assist the army in every 
possible manner and asked if there was anything further which the navy 
could do. 



142 PRESIDENT'S APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 

Secretary Taft, while testifying before the Cana' Committee, received 
at 3 o'clock a message from the War Department that another $1,000,000 
was needed to buy supplies for San Francisco sufferers. The Secretary, 
after reading the message, said : 

"We have already contracted for $1,500,000 worth of stores and 
expenses incident to the work. This message, of course, should go to 
the House at once." He stated that he would send it there for action. 
"If I am guilty of any impeachable offense (referring to the law prohib- 
iting expenditures in excess of appropriations) in connection w'ith this 
disaster, I shall crave your endorsement of my course," he said, in expla- 
nation of his desire to do everything possible for the sufferers without 
delay. "Congress will acquit you," said Senator Taliaferro, and other 
members of the committee assented,, feelingly. 

TO REPLACE FEDERAL BUILDINGS. 

When the Senate met on Friday, Mr. Scott presented and asked 
immediate attention for a resolution calling upon the Secretary of the 
Treasury to prepare for the Senate an estimate of the cost of replacing 
the ruined Federal buildings in San Francisco, and it was adopted. There 
was no objection to and very little discussion of the resolution. Mr. 
Heyburn suggested the necessity of making immediate provision for the 
United States Court in San Francisco. 

The Andrew Carnegie Hero Fund Commission wired $25,000 to the 
Mayor of San Francisco for the relief of the earthquake sufferers. The 
telegram was sent from Philadelphia by President Charles L. Taylor, of 
the commission, the message being first dispatched to the office of the 
Carnegie fund, in Pittsburg, with instructions to have it transmitted 
to its destination. It read as follows: 

"Carnegie Hero Fimd Commission places $25,000 at your disposal, 
subject to your order, for immediate relief of sufferers. With deepest 
sympathy, 

"Charles L. Taylor, President." 

The action was decided upon in an informal way by Mr. Carnegie 
and four members of the commission, all residents of Pittsburg. 

"The earthquake was the chief topic of conversation," said President 



PRESIDENT'S APPEAL BRINGS A GENEROUS APPROPRIATION 143 
Taylor afterward, "and the thought of sending immediate relief was 
naturally uppermost in our minds. No one particular person made the 
suggestion; it was simultaneous and unanimous." 

REMARKABLE ESCAPE. 

Eleven post-office clerks, all alive, were rescued on Friday from the 
ruins of the collapsed post-office building at Oakland, where they had been 
entombed under tons of stone and timber since the structure fell on 
Wednesday. 

All were at first thought to be dead, but when a rescuing party reached 
them, after hours of effort, they were found to be alive, though exhausted 
and unconscious. The structure had collapsed in such a way as to imprison 
them on all sides without crushing them, heavy timbers having shielded 
them from the falling masonry. For three days they had been without 
either food or drink. 

They were found by a party of workmen who were trying to recover 
the mail matter. The post-office was one of the few buildings wrecked 
by the earthquake shock that was not afterward swept by flames. All the 
mail matter was recovered, comparatively uninjured. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST PARALYZED 
'WITH TERROR AND DISTRESS. 

AFTER three long days and nights of indescribable horror, death and 
disaster, relief came to the stricken people of San Francisco. After 
a night of blackness and chill, while wild Pacific gales fanned the fiercely 
burning flames, shattered the crumbling desolate walls of ruined buildings 
and whistled through the unprotected camps where shivering refugees 
huddled together, the sun rose gloriously upon a day of hope and promise. 

With it came the news that the devastating flames were checked at 
last; that their work of destruction was over. Relief trains had entered 
during the night, and when day was fairly broken San Francisco had been 
fed. The vast camps for the first time in three days became the scene 
of other than famine and sorrow, and hope sprung anew in the hearts of 
the hundreds of thousands who passed through the stupendous disaster. 

Disease was the single enemy left unconquered. Fire and famine had 
passed. A thousand cheers from husky parched throats rose when late at 
night the first relief train pufifed in over the Coast Division of the Southern 
Pacific. Men shouted and women laughed hysterically as they saw the 
troops crowd about the cars, rip open the doors and reveal the plenty 
within. It was the turning point from a living death to life. The work 
of relief had been going on unceasingly at! day and continued throughout 
the night. Nine distributing points were arranged, and the stores were 
hurried from the trains in every kind of vehicle. Automobiles and wagons 
were either offered or commandeered, and the pufflng motor cars, guarded 
by soldiers, flashed up and down the rows of ashes and trill steel threads, 
bringing the food and water, the tents and clothing, which had been sent 
in from all parts of the United States. 

With the break of day, steamers from Oakland, Alameda, Vallejo 
and other points through which the railroads had means of communication 
with San Francisco, began landing cargoes of supplies at various pointsi 

144 



THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 146 

along the water front from the Potrero to the Presidio. The relief trains 
had been arriving at frequent intervals, and were unloaded almost before 
they had stopped. All were assisting in the work, and system was 
gradually growing out of the chaos which followed the first attempt at 
distribution. 

FEEDING THE GAUNT AND HUNGRY HOST. 

Gaunt men waited their turn in the long lines which formed around 
the stores while the troopers worked with feverish energy that all might 
be fed. More than twenty carloads of food was received in the city 
and word had been received that the vast stores which were speeding 
over the Western plains on express train schedule would arrive next day. 

The sight in the relief camps was a remarkable one, one that will 
never be effaced from the memory of those who saw it. With the rising 
of the sun the worn men and women rose from their beds of grass and 
sod and turned an expressionless face toward the ruins of the great city. 
The flames still burned in a few scattered places, but the resistless sweep 
of the night before was gone. Tall threads of steel rising high into the 
heavens marked the ruins of huge skyscrapers; crumbling masses of stone 
remained of the magnificent buildings which stood but a few hours before. 
Ashes and waste and desolation were everywhere. 

But the brave refugees, with the knowledge that food and water was 
at hand and that famine no longer threatened, turned a brave face to 
another day — the first day of hope since the sudden terrifying tremors of 
the earth Wednesday morning. In half an hour thousands of little fires 
were burning and the odor of coffee pervaded the camps. To the famished 
chilled bodies, after their night of terror, it portrayed the beginning of the 
new era. 

All San Francisco breakfasted in the open streets, a few rocks covered 
with a sheet of tin serving as a stove. Millionaire and pauper, Caucasian 
and Mongolian, white and black, all ate together. All through the fine 
residence section of Pacific Heights people sat on the sidewalks and took 
their black coffee, dry bread, crackers, and in some cases eggs and bacon. 
For many it was the first food that had passed their lips since the fire 
started. And .San Francisco fed, became once again a city of determina- 

10— S. F. 



146 THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

tion. Men who had remained in a stupor for hours smiled, children cooed 

once again, tired women rose with new hope. 

The flight, checked by the flames which threatened the Union Ferry- 
House, again commenced. A continuous stream of humanity trailed down 
Market Street through the ruins of what had been their homes and on to 
the ferryboats, while the bay shore from the north was a moving mass. 
All day long the refugees who elected to leave the despoiled city fell in 
with the procession. The terror had gone and the flight was slow and 
systematic. Troops guarded the docks and the boats ran ceaselessly to 
and fro with their human freight. All who wished to leave were urged 
to do so, as every one gone meant one less mouth to feed. None were 
allow^ed to take food with them, but all who were destitute were being 
provided passage to Oakland, and from there were carried free to any 
point they might wish to reach. 

]\Iany were taking advantage of these conditions, and 50,000 left 
within a few days. Twenty-five thousand escaped before the fire en- 
dangered the ferry landing, and fully as many departed the next day 
These were going to various points, carrying their all with them. The 
refugees, were they not pitiful, would have been grotesque. Men with 
high silk hats and wrapped in blankets, women in underskirts and shawls, 
their arms and hands bearing thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry, 
babes wnth dolls or yelping dogs, and all with hastily tied bundles; all 
were joining in the exodus. A few of the luckier ones had suit cases. 

THOUSANDS STAY IN. 

But while thousands left, some to seek new homes, some to visit 
relatives and some to travel or search for work, many thousands remained 
in the camps. These were rapidly being fitted up in somewhat better shape 
and under the energetic work of the troops were becoming more orderly. 
Tents in many cases supplanted the rude shelters of blankets and sheets. 
Thousands of canvas coverings were being distributed and cots replaced 
the beds of twigs. 

The exodus made no apparent decrease in the size of the great tented 
cities, but the day brought forth a different spirit. "We will stay until we 
can find another home," were the words heard everywhere. 



THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 147 

The work of local relief was being prosecuted among- these, many of 
whom, with a single stroke of the pen, could produce thousands of dollars, 
but were left with the few dollars they may have had in their pockets. 
These practically were no better off than the street laborer, who made his 
pocketbook his bank ; but efforts were being made to arrange a system of 
banking by which immediate necessities could be supplied. 

A meeting of members of the San Francisco Clearing House was 
called to discuss the financial situation, to consider the future of the banks 
and to prepare some plan to be submitted to the State Clearing Associa- 
tion, which would meet in a few days. The State Bank Commissioners 
reported all of the banks of the State in splendid condition, but it was 
believed that the situation demanded that some unusual action be taken to 
prevent any distressing disturbance. 

The advisability of having the Government pay out money from the 
San Francisco mint on telegraphic orders was considered. It was decided 
that it might be advisable to suspend banking in the State until a safe 
readjustment of monetary matters had been reached. 

James D. Phelan, chairman of the Finance Committee, reported that 
local subscriptions had reached the grand total of $228,250. The money 
given locally would be applied towards providing shelter other than the 
tents for the homeless thousands in the parks. Lumber was already coming 
into the city, and temporary huts were to be built at Golden Gate Park, 
while many of the buildings, such as the Fairmount Hotel and the 
Merchants' Exchange, which were gutted, would be fitted up to care for 
the refugees. 

NO FIRES ALLOWED IN HOUSES. 

Dinner was provided in the same manner as breakfast, no fires being 
allowed in houses, and many of those who were on the verge of illness 
recovered from their experiences. On the other hand, the nervous reaction 
following the heartrending experiences and horrible scenes of the past 
few days began to tell. Men and women who apparently became normal 
and filled with hope in the morning, as the day wore off and the terror 
went with the incoming of the relief, grew hysterical. The constant sus- 
pense over missing friends and relatives, coupled with the suddenly restored 
physical vig^or, was causing illness and in some cases insanity. 



148 THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

Several men suddenly went mad during the day and ran amuck. One 
attempted to kill his wife \vith a cleaver and had to be arrested to prevent 
him injuring himself or his family. This was a situation of which the 
authorities were fearful, and many cases of madness were looked for. 

The authorities had been endeavoring, with but little success, to 
(ibtain a list of the survivors, so that friends and families might be reunited. 
Ill one of the parks a great sign board was built and this was covered with 
names to direct searchers. In front of this and about the tents where 
the registration lists were being compiled were anxious crowds. Many 
families were able to keep together throughout the disaster, but others 
were scattered. Father sought daughter and mother, son. Husband and 
wife knew nothing of each other's whereabouts and were frantic with 
grief and fear. 

Cases of this kind became more noticeable. Heretofore, every man 
was for himself. Appalled at the destruction which had swept away his 
all and his nerves deadened by hunger and the fearful sights about him, 
he had either worked furiously in the battle with the flames or sat gazing 
dully on the ruins about him. Water was his one desire. Food was his 
craving. But with the relief, with his bodily wants satisfied, friendship 
and love were again predominating, and the thought of property loss was 
overshadowed in the greater loss of friends and loved ones. 

SURVIVORS TOO DAZED TO RELATE EXPERIENCES. 

The crowds were not yet even awakened from the animal-like stupor 
into which they had fallen, and the next two days promised to bring scenes 
of grief such as were not even witnessed during the time of fright. The 
survivors were unable to tell of their experiences. Individual cases were 
overshadowed in their minds by the greater general catastrophe. "We 
couldn't get any water," they said, but the terrible sufferings which were 
experienced were too fearful to be put into words. 

James D. Phelan, former Mayor of San Francisco and chairman of 
the Finance Relief Committee, said : 

"When I was awakened in my house by the shock I made my way 
down town toward the fire, which was raging in two directions. One 
branch of the fire destroyed my office building on Market Street and the 



THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 149 

other my home in the Mission. Of my personal effects I saved but a few. 
j\Jy family left my home and went to Golden Gate Park, where I followed 
and pitched two tents which I had at my home. Later I accompanied my 
f-imily to Burlingame, twenty miles south, in an automobile. The city 
will be rebuilt on lines of strength and architectural beauty heretofore 
unknown." 

Rudolph Spreckels, the sugar magnate, said : 

"I can give no connected account of my exp>eriences now. I have 
not had time to think about myself. I volunteered as a special officer and 
assisted the firemen in trying to check the fire, and my experience at Van 
Ness Avenue and Union Street was certainly a thrilling one. Of course, 
San Francisco will be rebuilt, and better than ever." 

HERMAN OELRICHS EXHAUSTED. 

Herman Oelrichs, the New York and San Francisco millionaire and 
society man, who married a daughter of Senator Fair, was thin and 
haggard. "I was in the St. Francis Hotel," he said, disjointedly. "I lost 
all my personal effects except the suit of clothes that I have on and two 
tlannel shirts. I have done what I could everywhere to relieve the suffer- 
ing, and just at present am too exhausted to think connectedly." All of 
the prominent men of the city told similar stories. All were thoroughly 
worn out with their heroic efforts in behalf of the city. 

General Funston appeared to the people in a light which will make 
llis name ring for generations. From the instant he assumed control 
Wednesday morning, confronted by the wild panic which pervaded the 
city, until the danger of famine and fire was supplanted by the dangers 
of disease, the soldier stuck to his post. His aides asserted that he had 
not slept since he appeared on the scene. His face w^as thin and worn, 
but his eyes were still steady and his commands were issued in the same 
cool, decisive tone which characterizes the man. 

And leaving the fire to other hands, he turned his attention to the 
distribution of supplies and the prevention of the disease which was now 
the greatest terror. With him was Mayor Schmitz. Like General Fun- 
ston, the Mayor, driven by the flames from one office to another, remained 
at his desk, alert and prepared. 



150 THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

Some little confusion occurred on account of the headquarters of the 
two men being in different portions of the city, and seve»al orders were 
conflicting. For a tinle it was proposed to wire the President asking him 
to declare General Funston in complete command, but the moment the 
misunderstanding occurred the General and the Mayor co-operated in 
the establishment of the military district with the military headquarters 
at Park lodge. 

Engineer, sanitary and Signal Corps officers were detailed and took 
up the work of providing sanitary conditions and preventing the spread 
of disease. Major Mclver was now laying out a sanitary camp in Golden 
Gate Park and the soldiers were providing temporary sewerage facilities. 

ALL HOSPITALS WERE FILLED. 

All of the hospitals were filled, and at the General Hospital, in the 
Presidio, 700 patients w-ere cared for. Out of this number only seven 
deaths occurred during the day, while at the Children's Hospital, in Cali- 
fornia Street, where a large number of injured and ill were treated, only 
one death occurred. 

It was difficult to estimate the number of dead, as bodies were scat- 
tered all over the city. They were being buried by gangs of men impressed 
by the soldiers. In three days thirty-two Chinese nnd whites were buried 
in Portsmouth Square alone. Few^ of the bodies were identified, most of 
them being burned beyond recognition. 

Mayor Schmitz issued the following proclamation, which citizens were 
instructed to observe: 

"Do not be afraid of famine. There will be abundance of food 
supplied. Do not use any water except for drinking and cooking purposes. 
Do not light any fires in houses, stoves or fireplace. Do not use any house 
closets under any circumstances, but dig earth closets in vards or vacant 
lots, using, if possible, chloride of lime or some other disinfectant. This 
is of the greatest importance, and the water supply is only sufficient for 
drinking and cooking. Do not allow any garbage to remain on the prem- 
ises; bury it and cover immediately. Pestilence can only be avoided by 
complying w'ith these regulations. 

"You are particularly requested not to enter any business house or 



THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 151 

dwelling except your own, as you may be mistaken for one of the looters 
and shot on sight, as the orders are not to arrest, but shoot down anyone 
caught stealing." 

The water supply was to be increased just as fast as pipes could be 
repaired. In some places railway tracks had been torn up to facilitate the 
repairing of water mains. Lake Merced was supplying about 1,000,000 
gallons to Lakeview Post Office and 7,000,000 gallons to San Francisco. 
There was water enough stored to supply 35,000,000 gallons a day, the 
amount formerly used. 

Carpenters and masons began at once to repair every bakery left 
standing in the city in order that they might provide bread for the home- 
less. The authorities issued an urgent appeal for a supply of chloride 
of lime, necessary to insure sanitary conditions. It was v/anted imme- 
diately and in large quantities. Other drugs needed were sulphur, carbolic 
acid, bichloride of mercury, vaccine points, general antiseptics, formalde- 
hyde, cathartics, castor oil, opium pills, morphine tablets and quinine. It 
was almost as urgent that people outside the city furnish these drugs at 
once as it was that they send food. 

The authorities had large forces of men at work on the sewer system 
inside the city all day, and the gangs were being worked at night. Soldiers 
were seeing that all of the orders in the Mayor's proclamation were being 
enforced, and, although little force was now needed to obtain compliance 
with their demands, a strict guard was being kept everywhere. 

PEOPLE UNITE IN PRAISE OF REGULARS. 

The people were unable to praise sufficiently the regulars who guarded 
them, utterly oblivious to the terrors of the frightened inhabitants. From 
the instant the fighting men from the Presidio swung into the city Wed- 
nesday morning there was no trifling with their commands. Orders were 
issued that all looters should be shot without question. That these would 
be carried out to the letter was not expected by the criminal element of 
the city, and they hailed the fire with fiendish glee as an opportunity to 
rob and steal. 

Before the first morning had passed, however, thieves had been caught 
looting the forsaken buildings which the flames were approaching, and the 



152 THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

soldiers, who were on the front of the fire Hne day and night, without 
further ado shot them down and left their bodies to be consumed by 
the blaze. 

A son of T. P. Riordan, a real estate dealer, was shot and instantly 
killed a few feet from his residence. Young Riordan was on his way 
home and had a bottle of whiskey in his coat pocket. The soldier on duty 
odered him to stop and throw the whiskey away, and when Riordan refused 
the soldier immediately shot him dead. A workman employed at the 
Gerson tannery was on his way home when halted by a sentry. The 
workman explained that his wife was dying and tried to pass. The sentry 
shot at him, but missed, and the workman ran back to the tannery. 

INSULTER SHOT DOWN. 

Women were protected at the point of the gun, and a man at one of 
the camps was shot down for insulting a girl. There were persistent 
reports of the hanging of two men in Jefferson Square and the killing of 
two Japanese by soldiers in the Western Addition. On the other hand. 
a number of men were arrested on General Funston's order under civil 
process. Many of these were charged with felony, and, as there was no 
commitment for them, they could not be received at San Quentin Prison, 
and were distributed among various police district stations. 

No matter whether it was in handling stores or guarding property, 
the regular reigned supreme, and the people were just beginning to realize 
how much they owed the men from the Presidio. Without them riot would 
have broken loose and the liquor-maddened lueu would have ruled the 
city. As it was, alcohol was confiscated and th'i vicious element of the 
city kept strictly within bounds. In striking contrast to the coolness and 
efficiency of the men of the army was the force of militiamen and special 
policemen. The University of California cadets and the men who were 
unaccustomed to handling weapons and coping with emergencies caused 
great dissatisfaction, and Chief of Police Dinan recommended to General 
Funston that they be withdrawn from the city. 

Many of these were as panic-stricken as the people they were to 
protect, and a number of men on the water front were shot for refusing 
to help in fighting the fire. One man, a foreigner, not understanding 



THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 153 

English, Started to walk away when a militiaman ordered him to chop 
some wood. Without more ado, the guard raised his rifle and fired, 
injuring the other fatally. Such cases as these were numerous. All but 
the regulars were wrought up to a high pitch of excitement and shot 
where milder orders would have sufficed. 

Martial law was much less rigorously enforced, however, as the ap- 
pearance of supplies quieted the people, and although conditions would 
be generally considered fearful, there was a vast improvement over the 
last night. For the first time in four days the 200,000, bereft of all, 
weary, torn by ceaseless vigil and the ravages of hunger, slept peacefufly, 
and at midnight in the camps all was silent. Only the sentry, alert still, 
paced up and down the silent rows of tents wherein lay a people who 
suffered agonies in a measure that makes men shudder. 

And Sunday dawned on a fallen city, but a city with life and hope 
and energy. Praise for the sparing of their lives was offered, though 
the elements had almost conquered them, and services were held in all 
the camps. 

SERVICES IN OPEN AIR. 

The ministers at a hastily called meeting decided upon this step, and 
a motley congregation worshiped beneath the skies on the coast of the 
vast Pacific while the ruined churches in the city still smouldered. It was 
estimated by ecclesiastical authorities that the loss to churches would not 
be less than $10,000,000. Bodies to suffer most severely are the Roman 
Catholic, the Presbyterian, the Congregational, the Baptist, the Episcopal, 
the Lutheran, the Methodist and the Disciples of Christ. 

The leading business men of the city, instead of being disheartened 
by the calamity, were prone to look into the future, and pessimism was an 
absent quality. Homer S. King, president of the San Francisco Clearing 
House, said : 

"San Francisco has l future and will rebuild. There is not even a 
panic, and I have seen more than one panic. It is only a setback, from 
which the city is strong and vigorous enough to recover. I do not believe 
any of the bankers consider this disaster anything more than a serious 
wound, that will heal quickly and cleanly. 



164 THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

"The banks are more than willing to help the people who have shared 
in the common distress.' Chicago and Baltimore recovered from even 
greater setbacks. The people of San Francisco have always been pro- 
gressive, and are recognized as hard workers. There is no reason why 
they should not do the same. The bankers will help build the city. We 
are absolutely satisfied and assured as to our own standing. Most of the 
money that is put into circulation will go where it will be most efTective 
in the re-establishment of business." 

The cleaning up of the city commenced. Forty bodies were taken 
from the ruins of a building at T19 Fifth Street by the Red Cross service. 
The structure, which was a four-story wooden building, containing three 
flats of ten rooms each, collapsed during the earthquake Wednesday morn- 
ing. At the time several persons were taken out alive from the upper 
stories, and it was thought that all the inmates had escaped. The ruins 
took fire and were consumed. The bodies of those imprisoned within the 
ruins were burned, only bones being left. 

FERRY FIRE CHECKED. 

The fire on the water front north of the ferry was under control at 
8.30 A. M. It burned as far south as the Lombard Street dock, where it 
was checked and was now smouldering. The ferry depot and some of 
the docks in that vicinity were safe. 

At night the llamcs came from Nob Hill ridge, making their way 
to the big sea wall sheds, docks and warehouses, but reports of damage 
were conflicting. One statement was that most of the valuable property 
on the extreme shore line escaped. A BitUctin reporter, who had .skirted 
the front in a tug, .said that everything except four docks had been swept 
clean from Fisherman's Wharf, at the f(~)Ot of Powell Street, to a point 
.nrc^und Westerly, almost to the ferry building. This meant that nearly 
a nu'le of grain sheds, docks and wharves had been added to the general 
destruction. The reporter also declared that he saw fire blazing in South 
San Francisco, and that spots in the suburb were smouldering. According 
to his account the fire was still burning at the foot of Powell Street, but 
there was no possibility of it going into the Presidio District. 

In the section north of Market Street the ruined district was prac- 



THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 156 

tically bounded on the west by tlie Van Ness Avenue, although in many 
blocks the flames destroyed squares to the west of that thoroughfare. 
The Van Ness Avenue burned line runs northerly to Greenwich Street, 
which is a few blocks from the bay. Then the boundary went up over 
Telegraph Mill and dov;'n to tliat portion of tlie shore that faces Oakland. 
Practically everything in the district bounded by Market Street, Van 
Ness Avenue, Greenwich Street and the bay was in ashes. On the east 
of Hyde Street Hill the fire burned down to Bay Street and Montgomery 
Avenue and stopped at that intersection. All south of Market Street, with 
perhaps some exceptions in tlie vicinity of the Pul)lic Mail dock, was gone. 
This section is bounded on the north by ATarkct Street, and runs to 
Guererro, goes out that street two blocks, turns west to Dolores, runs 
west six blocks to about Twenty-second, taking in four blocks on the other 
side of Dolores. The fire then took an irregular course southward, 
spreading out as far as Twenty-fifth Street, and going down that way to 
the southerly bay shore. 

CANNOT ESTIMATE DAMAGE. 

Rolla V. Watt, manager of the Royal and Queen Insurance Com- 
panies and one of the most prominent insurance men on the coast, was 
asked if he would hazard an estimate of the financial loss. He said: 
"My idea is something like $200,000,000. T have heard other insurance 
men place the figure at five hundred millions. \V6 don't know. It is 
simply too big for any human head to figure out at this time." 

An important meeting of the San l-'rancisco hire Underwriters was 
held at what will now be its permanent head(|uarters. Reed's Hall, at 
Twelfth and Harrison Streets, in Oakland. The sense of the meeting- 
was that the impression should not be given out that the insurance com- 
panies had money to throw away and that any losses would be paid 
until they had been properly adjusted and only such losses as the companies 
are responsible for would be paid. 

This matter was brought to the attention of the board by Mr. Watt. 
He said: "I met ex-Mayor Phelan on the street yesterday and he asked 
me to get some sort of a notice given out to the public that their losses 
would be paid I do not believe that this is the proper thing, and I told 



166 THE QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

him so. The companies I represent will pay what they are liable for and 
no more, and it is better for those whose spirits are drooping to allow 
them to droop rather than to buoy them up with false hopes." 

From the remark made there was no doubt that the companies would 
draw a fine distinction between the loss by earthquake and that by fire, 
and would only pay for that which was actually burned. The question 
of property devastated by dynamite was not touched upon, and will 
probably be the cause of endless litigation. The records in the Hall of 
Records were unharmed, which will prevent any tangle in titles. 

FUNSTON TELLS OF CONDITIONS. 

General Funston sent the following dispatch regarding conditions 
at San Francisco to the War Department : 

"Fire is making no progress to the west from Van Ness Avenue. 
West wind of considerable force now beginning. Indications now that 
all that part of the city east of Van Ness Avenue and north to the bay 
will be destroyed. Some considerable apprehension is felt as to the post 
of Fort Mason, but it is believed that we can save it. Weather continues 
fine and warm; practically no suffering from cold. It will be impossible 
to at once establish proper sanitary conditions. Much sickness must neces- 
sarily be expected. If the city to the west now standing remains intact 
there are many good buildings that can be used as hospitals. The water 
supply is encouraging. The Spring Valley water people believe they can 
deliver from ten to twelve million gallons daily. This, with other sources 
not mentioned, will prevent a water famine." 

The San Francisco daily newspapers, all of which were burned out, 
were gradually g^etting in shape to serve subscribers. On Thursday 
morning the best 'showing the morning journals could make was a small 
combination sheet bearing the heading "Call-Chronicle-Examiner." It 
was set up and printed in the oflfice of the Oakland Tribune, gave a brief 
account of the great disaster and took an optimistic view of the future 
of the stricken city. The papers, though still printed in Oakland, appeared 
under their own headings and with a few illustrations showing scenes in 
the streets of San Francisco. It was expected that within a short time they 
would be able to replace their plants and present their former appearance. 



CHAPTER X. 

HOMELESS REFUGEES RELATE TALES OF 
AGONIZING HORROR. 

IN writing from Oakland, under date of April 21st, our fair correspondent 
gives the following graphic story of the dreadful suffering among 
women and children: 

"May God be merciful to the women and children in this land of 
desolation and despair! Men have done, are doing, such deeds of sublime 
self-sacrifice, of magnificent heroism, that deserve to make the title of 
American manhood immortal in the pages of history. The rest lies with 
the Almighty. 

"I spent all of last night and to-day in that horror city across the bay. 
I went from this city of plenty, blooming with abounding health, thronged 
with happy mothers and joyous children, and spent hours among the 
blackened ruins and out on the windswept slopes of the sand hills by the 
sea, and I heard the voice of Rachel weeping for her children in the 
wilderness and mourning because she found them not. 

"I climbed to the top of Strawberry Hill, in Golden Gate Park, and 
saw a woman, half naked, almost starving, her hair disheveled and an 
unnatural lustre in her eyes, her gaze fixed upon the waters in the distance, 
and her voice repeating over and over again : 'Here I am, my pretties ; 
come here, come here.' I took her by the hand and led her down to the 
grass at the foot of the hill. A man — her husband — received her from 
me and wept as he said : 'She is calling our three little children. She 
thinks the sound of the ocean waves is the voices of our lost darlings.' 

"Ever since they became separated from their children in that first 
terrific onrush of the multitude when the fire swept along Mission Street, 
these two had been tramping over the hills and parks without food or rest, 
searching for their little ones. To all whom they have met they have 
addressed the same pitiful question : 'Have you seen anything of our lost 
babies?' They will not know what has become of them until order has 

157 



ir)S TALES OF AGOxNIZING HORROR 

Ijeen brought out of chaos ; until the registration headquarters of the mili- 
tary authorities has secured the names of all who are among the straggling 
wanderers around the camps of the homeless. Perhaps then it will be 
found that these children are lying in a trench among the corpses of the 
weaklings who have succumbed to the frightful rigors of the last three 
<lays. Last night a soldier seized me by the arm and cried : 'If you are 
a woman with a woman's heart, go in there and do whatever you can.' 
" 'In there' meant behind a barricade of brush, covered with a blanket, 
that had been hastily thrown together to form a rude shelter. I went in 
and saw one of my ow-n sex lying on the bare grass naked, her clothing, 
torn to shreds, scattered over the green beside her. She was moaning 
pitifully, and it needed no words to tell a w^oman what the matter was. 
I bade my man escort find a doctor, or at least send more women at once. 
He ran off and soon two sympathetic ladies hastened into the shelter. In 
an hour my escort returned with a young medical student. Under the 
best ministrations we could find, a new life was ushered into this hell, 
which, a few hours ago, was the fairest among cities. 

TWO THOUSAND BABIES BORN IN STRICKEN CITY. 

" 'There have been at least two thousand such cases,' said the medical 
student. 'Many of the mothers have died — few of the babies have lived. 
I, personally, know of nine babies that have been born in the park to-day. 
There must have been many others here, among the sand hills, and at the 
Presidio.' Think of it, you happy women who have become mothers in 
comfortable homes, attended with every care that loving hands can bestow. 
I'hink of the dreadful plight of these poor members of your sex. The 
very thought of it is enough to make the hearts of women burst with pity. 

"To-day I walked among the people crowded on the Panhandle. 
Opposite the Lyon Street entrance, on the north side, I saw a young 
woman sitting tailor-fashion in the roadway, which, in happier days, was 
the carriage boulevard. She held a dishpan and was looking at her 
reflection in the polished bottom, while another girl was arranging her 
hair. I recognized a young wife, whose m.arriage to a prominent young 
lawyer eight months ago was a gala event among that little handful of 
people who clung to the old-time fashionable district of Valencia Street, 



TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 159 

like the Pheland and Dent families, and refused to move from that aristo- 
cratic section when the new-made millionaires began to build their palaces 
on Nob Hill and Pacific Heights. I spoke to the young woman about 
the disadvantages of making her toilet under such untoward circumstances. 

" *Ah, Julia, dear, you must stay to luncheon,' she said, extending 
her fingers, just as though she stood in her own drawing room. 

I looked at the maid in astonishment, for I had never met the young 
society woman before. The maid shook her head and whispered when 
she got a chance: 

" 'My mistress is not in her right mind.' 

" 'Where is her husband ?' I asked. 

MIND DERANGED BY SUFFERING. 

" 'He has gone to try to get some food,' said the girl. 'She imagines 
that she is in her own home, before her dressing table, and is having me 
do up her hair against some of her friends dropping in.' 

" 'She must have suffered,' I said, 'to cause such a mental derange- 
ment.' 

"The girl's eyes filled with tears. She told me that her mistress had 
seen her brother killed by falling timbers while they were hurrying to a 
place of safety. A little further on I saw two women concealed as best 
they might be behind a tuft of sand brush, one lying face down on the 
ground, while the other vigorously massaged her bare back, I asked 
if I might help, and learned that the ministering angel was the unmarried 
daughter of one of the city's richest merchants, and that the girl whom 
slie succored had been employed as a servant in her father's household. 
The girl's back had been injured by a fall, and her mistress's fair hands 
were trying to make her well again. 

"Thus has this overwhelming common woe leveled all barriers of 
caste and placed the suffering multitude on a basis of democracy. On a 
rock behind a manzanita bush near the edge of Stow Lake I saw a 
Chinaman making a pile of broken twigs in the early morning. The man 
felt inside his blouse and swore a gibbering, unintelligible Asiatic oath 
as his hand came forth empty. Observing my escort, the Chinaman 
approached and said: 



IfiO TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 

" 'Bosse, alle same, catchee match?' 

"My escort ga\e liiiii the desired article, and the Chinaman made a 
lire of In's pile of twigs. 'Why are you making a fire, John?' I asked. 

" 'Bleakfast,' he replied, laconically. 

SOCIETY FOLKS COMPELLED TO CAMP. 

"I asked him where his food might be, and he gave us a quick glance 
of suspicion as he said briefly, 'No sabbe.' We stood by watching him, 
evidently to his great distress, and finally he made bold to say, 'You no 
, stand lound, bosse ; you go 'way.' 

"We left him, but after making the tour around the lake came back 
to the same place. There sat four people on the ground eating fried pork, 
potatoes and Chinese cakes. Tn a young woman of the group I recognized 
one whom I had seen dancing at one of Mr. Greenway's Friday Night 
Cotillon balls in the Palace Hotel's maple room during the winter. They 
oflfered to share their meal with us. but we told them that we had just 
come from breakfast in Oakland. T told them about the strange conduct 
of their Chinaman. \\ho was traveling back and forth from his fire to 
the 'table' with the food as it became ready to serve. The father of the 
family laughed. 

" 'Yes,' he said, 'that is Charlie's way. He has been with us many 
years, and when our home was destroyed he came out here with us in 
preference to seeking refuge among his countrymen in Chinatown. Yes- 
terday w^e w'cre without food, and Charlie disappeared. I thought he had 
deserted us, but toward dark he came back with a bamboo pole over his 
shoulder and a Chinese market gardener's basket suspended from either 
end. In one of the baskets he had a pile of blankets and a lot of canvas. 
In the other w-as an assortment of pork, flour, Chinese cakes and vegetables, 
besides a half-dozen chickens and a couple of bagfuls of rice. 

"Charlie had been foraging in Chinatown for us before the fire 
reached that quarter. He made a tent and improvised beds for us, and 
he has the food concealed somewhere in the vicinity, but where he will 
not tell us, for fear that we will give some of it to others and reduce our 
own supply. Charlie boils rice for himself. He will not touch the other 
food. A\^ithout him we should have been starving." 



TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 161 

"The straits to which the people have been driven to find shelter for 
the sick may be realized when it is known that a bear's cage has been 
turned into a hospital. This cage was the home of Monarch, the magnifi- 
cent grizzly bear which W. R. Hearst sent Allen Kelly into the mountains 
of Ventura to capture twenty years ago, and which Mr. Hearst gave to 
the city of his birth. The cage is a large circular inclosure of tall iron 
bars imbedded in masonry in the open air. 

"Adjoining it is an annex, which has been the private boudoir of 
Monarch's mate. The grizzly was driven into the annex, the gate between 
them closed, and the large cage, covered with canvas, used to house the 
sick. There is room in it for several dozen persons, and it is filled with 
women and children victims of typhoid. 

"Near the Japanese tea garden I heard a child crying, and presently 
found a tiny child tied to a tree. A soldier sentry passing told me that 
the child's mother had been taken away by the doctors, who said she had 
smallpox. The father had gone away to procure food, and the mother 
had caused the doctor to tie her child to the tree so that its father might 
find it when he returned, and to the little one's dress was pinned a note 
informing the father what had become of the mother. 

CHILDREN'S PLACE OF REFUGE. 

"Around the ruins of the refectory at the children's playground 
ropes have been stretched to form a large inclosure. This is the lost 
children's place of refuge. There are more than 2000 helpless, terrified 
atoms of humanity under guard there. Dozens of women and nurses are 
inside the inclosure working uncomplainingly to minister to the needs of 
the probably orphaned children. 

"Military sentries patrol outside and put back any of the little ones 

who scramble under the ropes. There is not a minute in the day that 

anguished mothers who have lost their children are not wandering around 

inside the ropes looking eagerly among the 2000 little ones and calling 

their beloved ones by name. Frequently, but alas! much too infrequently, 

there is a cry, 'Here I am, mamma !' and a shriek of joy comes from some 

happy mother's heart. 

"I saw to-day a noble example of the faithful nature of a dumb brute 
11— S. F. 



162 TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 

for a beloved human being. A dog of lowly mixed breed ran under the 
ropes among the children; He tumbled the little things right and left until 
he came to a boy in skirts, who clasped the dog around the neck, and 
they lavished caresses upon each other. 

"The animal was seized by a soldier, tossed over the ropes and kicked 
away. In a few minutes he was under the ropes again, and found his 
little master, but was quickly thrown out as before. 

"A third time the faithful dog braved abuse. This time the soldier 
gave him a cruel cuffing and held him up for anoUier soldier to run him 
through with his bayonet. An officer prevented the killing of the animal 
and had the boy taken outside the inclosure, where he romped with his 
pet until he fell asleep, with his head pillowed on the dog's body. Later 
in the day I learned that the child's father had found him and had taken 
both the dog and the boy away." 

Most thrilling of all stories yet related of adventures in stricken San 
Francisco during the days of horror and nights of terror is that of a 
party of four, two w^omen and two men, who arrived in Los Angeles, 
after having spent a night and the greater portion of two days on the 
hills about Golden Gate Park. 

All were guests at the Palace the night of the 17th. They returned 
with feet swollen and bruised from miles of walking over ragged, broken 
streets and with flesh seared and blistered from cinder and flame. The 
women hastened to a local hotel, where they remained all the afternoon 
and evening, prostrated from the shock and exposure and denying them- 
selves even to all friends. 

FRIGHTFUL CREAKING AND ROARING. 

Dr. Ernest W. Fleming, one of the party, told of his adventures as 
follows : 

"I was stopping in a room on the third floor of the hotel when the 
first shock occurred. An earthquake in San Francisco w^as no new sensa- 
tion to me. I was there in 1868, when a boy ten years old, when the first 
great earthquake came. But that was a gentle rocking of a cradle to the 
one of Wednesday. 

"I awoke to the groaning of timbers, the grinding, creaking sound; 



TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 168 

then came the roaring". Plastering and wall decorations fell. The sen- 
sation was as though the buildings were stretching and writhing like a 
snake. The darkness was intense. Shrieks of women, higher, shriller 
than that of the creaking timbers, cut the air, I tumbled from the bed 
and crawled, scrambling toward the door. The twisting and writhing 
appeared to increase. The air was oppressive. I seemed to be saying to 
myself, 'Will it never, never stop?' When I wrenched the lock, the door 
of the room swung back against my shoulder. Just then the building 
seemed to breathe, stagger and right itself, 

"But I fled from that building as from a falling wall. I could not 
believe that it could endure such a shock and still stand. The next I 
remember I was standing in the street, laughing at the unholy appearance 
of half a hundred men clad in pajamas — and less. 

HUMOR EVEN AMID DESOLATION. 

'The women were in their night robes ; they made a better appearance 
than the m.en. The street was a rainbow of colors in the early morning 
light. There was raiment of every hue — and in many cases raiment never 
intended to be seen outside the boudoir. I looked at a man at my side ; he 
was laughing at me. Then for the first time I became aware that I was in 
pajamas myself. I turned and fled back to my room. There I dressed, 
packed my grip and hastened back to the street. 

"All the big buildings on Market Street toward the ferry were stand- 
ing, but I marked four separate fires. The fronts of the small buildings 
had fallen out into the streets and at some places the debris had broken 
through the sidewalk into cellars. I noticed two women near me. They 
were apparently without escort. One said to the other: 'What wouldn't 
I give to be back in Los Angeles again !' That awakened a kindred feeling 
and I proffered my assistance. I put my overcoat on the stone steps of a 
building and told them to sit there. In less than two minutes those steps 
appeared to pitch everything forward, to be flying at me. 

"But I was just stunned. I stood there in the street with debris falling 
about me. It seemed the natural thing for the tops of buildings to careen 
over and for fronts to fall out. I do not even recall that the women 
screamed. 



164 TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 

''The street gave a convulsive shudder and the buildings somehow 
righted themselves again. I thought they had crashed together above my 
head. The two women arose and started to walk. I followed in a kind 
of aimless sort of way. The street was filled with moving things again. 
The rainbow raiment had disappeared, and all were clad in street clothes. 
Every one was walking, but there was no confusion.. We did not even 
seem in a hurry, Down Market Street the flames were growing brighter, 

"We walked with our luggage to the St. Francis. Fires were burning 
down toward the ferry, but the Fire Department had turned it. We had 
faith in the Fire Department. Soon I became aware that squads of soldiers 
were patrolling the streets. It appeared perfectly natural. I do not think 
I wondered why they were there. 

"Men and women were all about us. We looked at each other and 
talked; even tried lamely to joke. But every few minutes a convulsive 
quiver swept through the city. The others seemed to be shivering. I 
noticed that the eyes of the men and women were rolling restlessly. Their 
tones were pitched high. It seemed to grate on my nerves. Then I fell to 
wondering whether I was talking shrilly, too. 

"HERE, SHOOT THIS MAN!" 

"I went to a grocery without a front and bought a few supplies — 
things that would make a cold lunch. The grocer did not even overcharge 
me. He was particular to give me the right change. The soldiers came 
and told us to move on. It seemed the natural thing to do. By this time 
the fire was creeping dangerously close. We would have walked to the 
ferry. We tried it on a score of streets, but that wall of fire was always 
there. It seemed to creep across in front of us, 

"And in front of the fire always walked the soldiers. A number of 
times I hired express wagons. We would ride for a few blocks and get out 
on the sidewalk. In not a single instance were we charged more than a 
reasonable price for the ride. Once we loitered until the soldiers came up. 
A rough fellow, who had been standing by my side, tried to dart through 
the line. He looked like a beach comber. A young lieutenant caught him 
by the coat. 'Here,' he called to his men. 'Shoot this man!' I hurried 
on, without looking back. I don't remember that I heard a shot fired. 



TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 165 

But at the time it seemed so trivial a matter that I did not pay much 
attention. 

"The air was filled with the roar of explosions. Firemen, soldiers 
and citizens were dynamiting great blocks. Sailors were training guns to 
rake rows of residences. All the while we were moving onward with the 
crowd. Cinders were falling about us. At times our clothing caught fire — 
just little embers that smoked once and went out. The stinging cinders 
burned our faces and we used our handkerchiefs for veils. 

CLOTHING AFIRE; FACES BURNED. 

"Everybody around us was using some kind of cloth to shield their 
eyes. It looked curious to see expressmen and teamsters wearing those 
veils. Quite naturally we seemed to come to Golden Gate Park. It seemed 
as though we had started for there. By this time the darkness was setting. 
But it was a weird twilight. The glare from the burning city threw a 
kind of red flame and shadow about us. It seemed uncanny; the figures 
about us moved like ghosts. 

"The wind and fog blew chill from the ocean, and we walked about 
to keep warm. Thousands were walking about, too; but there was no 
disturbance. Families trudged along there. There was no hurry. All 
appeared to have time to spare. The streets, walks and lawns were 
wiggling with little parties, one or two families in each. All night we 
moved about "the hills. Thousands were moving with us. As the night 
wore on the crowd grew. Near daylight the soldiers came to the park. 
They were still moving in front of the fire. 

"I had bought a little store of provisions before nightfall. I walked 
over to the fire made by one squad of soldiers and picked up a tin bucket. 
I went to a faucet and turned it on. A little water was there. I boiled 
some eggs and we ate our breakfast. Then we concluded to make our way 
to the water front, as soldiers were driving us from that part of the hills. 
The flames were still after us. We walked toward the water front for 
hours. Part of the time it was through the burned district. The streets 
were rough, the sidewalks jagged and broken. The women suffered 
severely. Jagged stones and wires cut their thin shoes from their feet. 
Bandages did no good. 



166 TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 

"The walk back through the ruins was the worst of all. Dead horses 
lay along our path. Some were burned to a crisp. On Howard Street, 
near Market, lay the charred bodies of two men. Those were the only 
dead we saw in the streets. Walking and resting, we reached the ferry 
near sunset. Soldiers seemed to be everywhere. They were offering milk 
to women and children. We took a boat to Oakland and hastened by train 
to Los Angeles. If it were not from the sting of the cinders that still 
stick to my face I might think it was all a nightmare." 

THIEVES HANGED BY CIVILIANS. 

Oliver Posey, Jr., said: "Were it not for the fact that the soldiers 
in charge of the city do not hesitate in shooting down the ghouls the law- 
less element would predominate. Not alone do the soldiers execute the 
law. On Wednesday afternoon, in front of the Palace Hotel, a crowd of 
workers in the ruins discovered a miscreant in the act of robbing a corpse 
of its jewels. Without delay he was seized, a rope was obtained and 
he was strung up to a beam which was left standing in the ruined entrance 
of the Palace Hotel. 

"No sooner had he been hoisted up and a hitch taken in the rope than 
one of his fellow-criminals was captured. Stopping only to obtain a few 
yards of hemp, a knot was quickly tied and the wretch was soon adorning 
the hotel entrance by the side of the other dastard. These were only two 
instances of law executed by civilians that I personally witnessed, but I 
heard of many more seen by others. The soldiers do all they can, and while 
the unspeakable crime of robbing the dead is undoubtedly being prac- 
ticed, it would be many times as prevalent were it not for constant vigi- 
lance on all sides as well as the summary justice." 

Jack Spencer had much to say of the treatment of those caught in the 
act of rifling the dead of their jewels. 

"At the corner of Market and Third Streets on Wednesday," said Mr. 
Spencer, "I saw a man attempting to cut the fingers from the hand of a 
dead woman in order to secure the rings which adorned the stiffened 
fingers. Three soldiers witnessed the deed at the same time and ordered 
the man to throw up his hands. Instead of obeying the command he drew 
a revolver from his pocket and began to fire at his pursuer without warning. 



TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 167 

The three soldiers, reinforced by half a dozen uniformed patrolmen, raised 
their rifles to their shoulders and fired. With the first shots the man fell, 
and when the soldiers went to the body to dump it into an alley eleven 
bullets were found to have entered it." 

Miss Bessie Tannehill, of the Tivoli Theatre, San Francisco, in re- 
ferring to her experience, said : 

*T was asleep in the Hotel Langman, Ellis and Mason Streets, when 
the shock came. There were at least lOO persons in the building. At 
the first shock I leaped from my bed and ran to the window. Another 
upheaval came and I was thrown from my feet. I groped my way out of 
the room and down the dark stairway. Men, women and children, almost 
without clothing, crowded the halls, crying and praying as they rushed out. 
We finally obtained a carriage by paying $ioo. Fire was raging at this 
time and people were panic-stricken. 

"After getting outside of the danger region I walked back, hoping 
to aid some of the unfortunates. The merchants on upper Market and 
nearby streets threw open their stores and invited the crowds to help 
themselves. Mobs rushed into every place, carrying out all the goods 
possible. I saw many looters and pickpockets at work. On Mason Street 
a gang of thieves was at work. They were pursued by troops, but escaped 
in an automobile," 

" GREAT HEAT FELT FOR A MILE. 

"The steamship 'Itauri' left San Francisco Thursday afternoon, when 
the flames seemed to be at their height," said First Mate Charles Appen. 
"As seen from the bay it was a sublime but terrible spectacle. We were 
anchored more than a mile out in the roadstead, but the wind as it swept 
over the burning city and down upon us was like the breath of a demon. 
At times it was impossible for us to remain on deck so great was the heat. 
The terrific concussions of dynamite brought hundreds of fish to the sur- 
face. Our clearance papers were burned, but we could not retain our 
anchorage and late Thursday afternoon we started toward the open sea. 
"Wharves were filled with people. They beckoned to us that they needed 
assistance. It was the thought of self-preservation that kept the 'Itauri's' 
course unchanged. At midnight we were thirty miles at sea, but the flames 



IG8 TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 

were still visible and until almost dawn we stood on deck and watched the 
reflection of the flames as they played to and fro on the cloud mountains 
which hung- over the ruined city." 

Twenty-tw'O members of the Metropolitan Opera Company, of Newr 
York, victims of the San Francisco disaster, passed through Ogden, Utah, 
April 2 1 St. 

Mme. Sembrich said that her loss was about $40,000. She w^as fortu- 
nate in recovering her pearls, which were with her in the apartment at St. 
Francis Hotel. She said : 

"I am only too g-lad to be out with my life. I was stopping on the 
sixth floor of the hotel, and was asleep when the first shock was felt. 1 
jumped out of bed, and ran into the street with nothing but my night robe. 
After remaining for an hour on the square opposite the hotel I returned 
to the aprtment and dressed. It was at this time that T brought my jewels. 
It was remarkable how the people stayed together. I was taken to the 
home of Dr. Harry Tavis. He said that he intended remaining with the 
ladies, even though he lost his all. He was true to the promise, for he 
witnessed his beautiful home burning and did not leave the ladies for a 
moment. It proved to me the spirit of the American people, which is 
indeed remarkable." 

PREPARED TO GIVE MATINEE. 

"I stayed at the Opera House until I was convinced it was doomed," 
said Mr. Goritz. "I was of the opinion that, as the building was fire- 
proof, it would be safe. Fires were at that time all around the building. 
I lost all my personal effects, escaping with nothing but the clothes which 
I have on my back. In the morning and before the fire had reached the 
Opera House I fully intended to give the proposed matinee performance, 
*The Marriage of Figaro.' All of the musicians and myself w^orked up to 
the very time we were ordered away in an unavailing effort to save the 
property." 

Conductor Hertz said, in a jocular way: 

"I am wearing Caruso's shirt, and am glad to be able to do. I 
brought a souvenir of the fire," and with these words he showed a key to 
room 516 of the Palace Hotel. 



TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 169 

"I was occupying a room at the Palace Hotel," Signor Caruso said, 
"and was awakened about 5.10 by the first shock. The elegant big hotel 
danced a jig for several minutes and then returned to its natural position. 
This is one of the signs which I cannot understand, and I suppose never 
will. After the structure had regained its natural position, I hurriedly 
ran to the street. It is a miracle that some of us were not killed, as the 
debris in a very short space of time had the thoroughfares blocked. The 
big steel scrapers were toppling, and I could see eight or nine afire from 
where I was standing." 

Mr. Dippel said that his loss would probably reach $25,000. Miss 
Abbott said that she had apartments on the top floor of the Palace Hotel. 
When the shock came she rushed to the streets, to find them crowded with 
people rushing backward and forward frantically. An attempt was made 
to get expressmen to remove trunks, but was unsuccessful. Miss Abbott 
praised the people of San Francisco, saying that there was no panic. 

EXPERIENCE OF A SURVIVOR. 

Adolphus Busch, of St. Louis, told of his experiences in the earth- 
quake and fire. He said : 

"I left San Francisco on April 20th with my family, Harry Nickaul 
and Carl Conrad. The earthquake which shook San Francisco made all 
frantic and was undoubtedly the severest ever experienced in the United 
States. The -beautiful Hotel St. Francis swayed from south to north like 
•a tall poplar in a storm. Furniture, even pianos, were overturned, and 
people were thrown from their beds. 

*T quickly summoned my family and friends and urged them to escape 
to Jefferson Square, which we promptly did. An awful sight met our 
eyes. Every building was either partly or wholly wrecked, roofs and 
cornices were falling from skyscrapers on lower houses, crushing and 
burying the inmates. 

"Fires started in all parts of the city, the main water pipes burst and 
flooded the streets. One earthquake followed the other. The people 
became terrified, but all behaved wonderfully calm. More than 200,000 
persons were without shelter, camping on the hills. There was no light, 
water or food. Fortunately the regulars ana militia maintained order and 



170 TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 

discipline, otherwise more horrors would have occurred and riots might 
have prevailed. 

"The fire spread over three-fourths of the city, and could not be con- 
trolled ; no water to fight it, no light, and the earth still trembling. 

''Building after building was demolished to check the progress of 
warring, seething flames, but all of no avail. We were fortunate to obtain 
two conveyances and fled to Nob Hill, from which we witnessed the 
indescribable drama. Block after block was devastated. The fires blazed 
like volcanoes and all business houses, hotels, theatres, in fact the entire 
business portion lay in ruins, and two-thirds of the residences; but I trust 
that a new and more beautiful San Francisco will be born and that the 
generous American nation will give it the support and financial assistance 
it so fully deserves. 

"After a night of horrors we boarded the ferry for Oakland, where 
my private car had been since Tuesday, and started for home, with noth- 
ing saved but w^hat is on our backs, but extremely happy at having escaped 
unharmed." 

GIRL SAW DYING MAN SHOT. 

"Soldiers shot living beings to save them the tortures of death in the 
flames," said Miss Margaret Underbill, of Chicago. 

"The horror of it all was so overwhelming, the sight of the dead 
became commonplace. The misery of the living received scarcely passing 
notice. Seconds seemed like hours, and the two days like twenty years. 
I was in a three-story frame building. The house seemed to swing like 
the pendulum of a clock. Plaster w-as falling about me and pictures fell 
from the wall as I sprang from my bed. 

"At that moment the brick chimney of the Sacred Heart College, ad- 
joining, crashed through the ceiling, burying my bed beneath the debris. 
A second chimney fell a few feet behind me as I rushed down the hall. 
After the shock subsided I returned, dressed and with the help of my 
friends, moved my trunk to the street, where I left it to be devoured by 
the flames. We stopped to watch the soldiers, firemen and policemen, who, 
with timbers from the wreckage, were at work on the front of a burning 
frame building. The front of a three-story structure had fallen outward. 



TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 171 

"Pinned beneath the structure was a man who pleaded piteously witli 
the men who worked to release him. His head and shoulders projected 
from the wreckage. With his free arm he tried to help the workers by 
pulling at the timbers. One by one the men were driven back by the 
approaching flames until at last only one, a soldier, remained. His face 
was blistered by the heat, 

" 'Good-by,' the soldier shouted as a sheet of flame swept around the 
corner of the building. The place was a roaring hell. The soldier picked 
up his rifle, which was standing against a broken timber and turned to go. 
From where we stood we could see the very timber that held the man 
down smoke. His hair and mustache were singed. 

BEGGED TO BE SHOT. 

" 'For God's sake, shoot me,' he begged. His voice rose clear above 
the roar of the flames. The soldier turned and went back to within twenty- 
five feet of the man and said something. Then he started to walk away. 
'Shoot me before you go/ the man yelled. The soldier turned quickly. 
His rifle was at his shoulder. The rifle cracked and the blood spurted from 
the head of the man. 

"I covered my eyes and walked on. I saw mothers seated on the 
curbstones trying to still the hunger of their babies with beer. As we 
walked along the water front I saw them digging trenches and burying 
piles of deadi Garbage wagons served as hearses. Wearied with the day, 
I slept soundly through the night. My bed was the rocks of North Beach." 

The first refugees from San Francisco to reach Chicago arrived April 
2ist, on the Overland Limited over the Northwestern. There were eight 
who came through from the scene of destruction, aside from the train crew. 
Seventy-five advance reservations had been made for passage. Sixty-eight 
failed to get across the bay to the place where the fast Northwestern train 
was ready to start Wednesday morning. 

Mr. H, N. Hovey, one of the refugees, in describing the first effects 
of the earthquake shock, said : "My family and I had apartments on the 
third floor of the Palace Hotel when the city was shaken by the earth- 
quake. It was about 5.15 o'clock when I was suddenly thrown from my 
bed by the terrible shock. 



172 TALES OF AGONIZING HORROR 

''With the first shock part of the building crumbled away. In an 
instant I was up. In an. adjoining room my daughters were sleeping. 
The panic in the hotel was awful. Everywhere persons were running 
about, evidently crazed or dazed. We managed to reach the street, though 
our clothes were almost torn from our bodies in the crush when we at- 
tempted to leave the building. The scene in Market Street was terrible. 
Great piles of debris were in the streets, and wherever we turned we could 
hear the heartrending cries of the victims. Many of the children had 
fallen, and by that time the fire had begun to eat its way up Market Street. 
In front of the Palace Hotel great crowds had gathered. As each second 
passed the scene became more terrible. The fire was working its way up 
Market Street, and I saw that it would only be a short time before that 
part of the city would be burning. I finally got a cab, and after making a 
wide detour of the city, staying out of the fire zone, I reached the Union 
Ferry Station. Just as we reached the landing a boat left. I chartered a 
tug and in that way reached Oakland, where we took the Overland 
Limited." 



CHAPTER XI. 

CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER. 

NOT until the earthquake shook the rickety houses to the earth to be 
destroyed by fire did the authorities of San Francisco reahze what 
manner of place was the much advertised Chinatown, the Mecca of all 
tourists in California, the spot in which 25,000 Chinese lived like so many 
prairie dogs. 

When the high winds which came after the fire blew the ashes away 
the yawning mouths of tunnels, which the police had long suspected, were 
revealed. Entrance to these passages was so carefully hidden that only the 
leaders of the Tonga, who used the damp dungeons for places of meeting 
or to plot the death of a victim — the same room often acting as the execu- 
tion dungeon once the marked man was taken below the level of the street — 
knew and declared. 

One of San Francisco's alert detectives, said to be the best posted man 
on Chinatown, stooH at the comer of Bartlett Alley and declared: 

"For years T have been trying to reach the tunnels which I knew to 
exist under this Chinese city. What goes on down there one can only 
conjecture, but it is a thousand times worse than the sins and vices which 
are practiced bv these Mongolians in the streets and gambling houses you 
can see from this corner. Girls in the bloom of youth are smuggled over 
the Canadian border, brought here in the night, and confined in dungeons, 
perhaps never to look upon the light of the sun again, although they may 
live for years." 

Very few white men have visited the underground passages, certainly 
none of San Francisco's police force, for every man in the department was 
Avatched when he entered Chinatown and the surveillance did not cease 
while he remained there. Secretary Tsing, a prominent member of the 
Chinese aristocracy, stationed for political reasons in the Chinese Legation 
at the capital of Peru, was a member in high standing in a society of con- 
siderable political influence in China, with a powerful branch in San 

173 



174 CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER 

Francisco. He took two white men to the theatre in Chinatown and 
boastfully declared that the real secret of Chinatown had never been re- 
vealed. He conducted the men to the rear of the stage, slid a secret door 
back and motioned for the men to follow him. 

For one hour, stooping until their backs were strained, the men 
silently followed a gTJide, to look upon a complete new Chinatown, the 
tunnel leading past scores of doors to dungeons, against the bars of which 
some unfortunates pressed their faces, to jump back from the flame of a 
flickering miner's light which Tsing carried. 

Under this Chinese city were hundreds of women and children. Their 
voices mingled in glad refrain or echoed the gloomy murmurs of some who 
were suffering. Huddled in groups about a small fire, made from balls of 
coal dust which Chinese prepare, were merchants who had returned from 
their shops on the street level to these holes in the wall to plot and invent. 
The odor of opium was nauseating. The revulsion of feeling was over- 
powering. When the street was reached, after climbing a flight of stairs 
to the kitchen of a chop suey "joint," the breath of foul air, even in this 
hole, was refreshing. 

TRAGEDIES UNDERGROUND. 

Hundreds of men went to their deaths each year in Chinatown without 
an inkling of the tragedies being known to the police. It was easy to 
bury the dead under the tunnels, one hundred feet deep, in Chinatown. 
Members of tongs marked for death left friends behind, men who refused 
to complain to the local authorities, but who, instead, sought revenge 
themselves in the same fiendish manner that death had been meted out to 
their fellow-members. 

For years battles waged. Scores and scores were killed, even in the 
streets, until the citizens of San Francisco threatened to organize a vigi- 
lance committee and wipe Chinatown from the face of 'Frisco. This had 
its effect. The war was carried below the streets, where dying men could 
scream in agony and not be heard. The slave traffic has enriched many 
Chinese, suave merchants who led simple lives above the street, but who 
retired to the subterranean passages and their slave marts to put upon the 
block the newest arrivals from the slave market in Canton. 



CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER 175 

Gambling has always existed here. The gamblers composed the bad 
element. They fought for one another's gold, committed murder to obtain 
means with which to enter games of fantan and other Chinese devices of 
chance, and slept away their daylight hours in a bunk somewhere down 
below the street, steeped in the fumes of opium, a sordid mass of humanity 
until nature awoke the brain to life. 

There never will be such a Chinatown in San Francisco again. These 
(people will be sent to a district far from the heart of the new city, where 
they will be under such close surveillance that practices of the past will be 
stopped when they begin. Provision will be made to suppress the tongsi 
for all time, if this can be accomplished. 

No one will ever know how many lives were lost in Chinatown. It is 
a moral certainty that men overcome with opium, the slave women in their 
dungeons, and many a hapless wretch unconscious from morphine were 
killed when the tremor of the earth toppled the buildings down to be con- 
sumed in a short time by the fire. 

Citizens who have visited the remains of this plague spot were aston- 
ished at the catacombs which lay exposed. It is improbable that any at- 
tempt will be made to reach the bodies of Chinese victims. Earth will be 
thrown into the gaping abyss, burying for all time the victims of the 
disaster and blotting forever the sites of these dens of vice and horrible 
chambers of sin. 

THE OLD TOWN FOREVER GONE. 

The old San Francisco is dead. The gayest, lightest-hearted, most 
pleasure-loving city of this continent, and in many ways the most interest- 
ing and romantic, is a horde of huddled refugees living among ruins. It 
may rebuild; it probably will; but those who have known that peculiar 
city by the Golden Gate and have caught its flavor of the Arabian Nights 
feel that it can never be the same. It is as though a pretty, frivolous 
woman had passed through a great tragedy. She survives, but she is 
sobered and different. If it rises out of the ashes it must be a modern 
city, much like other cities and without its old flavor. 

The city lay on a series of hills and the lowlands between. These hills 
are really the end of the Coast Range of mountains which lie between the 



176 CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER 

interior valleys and the ocean to the south. To its rear was the ocean; 
but the greater part of the town fronted on two sides on San Francisco 
Bay, a body of water always tinged with gold from the great washings of 
the mountain, usually overhung with a haze, and of magnificent color 
changes. Across the bay to the north lies Mount Tamalpais, about 5,000 
feet high, and so close that ferries from the waterfront took one in less 
than half an hour to the little towns of Sausalito and Belvidere, at its foot. 

PECULIAR YET DELIGHTFUL CLIMATE. 

The climate of California is peculiar; it is hard to give an Impression 
of it. In the first place, all the forces of nature work on laws of their own 
in that part of California. There is no thunder or lightning; there is no 
snow, except a flurry once in five or six years; there are perhaps half a 
dozen nights in the winter when the thermometer drops low enough so 
that there is a little film of ice on exposed water in the morning. Neither 
is there any hot weather. Yet most Easterners remaining in San Francisco 
for a few days remember that they were always chilly. 

For the Gate is a big funnel, drawing in the winds and the mists 
which cool off the great, hot interior valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacra- 
mento. So the west wind blows steadily ten months of the year and almost 
all the mornings are foggy. This keeps the temperature steady at about 65 
degrees — a little cool for comfort of an unacclimated person, especially 
indoors. Califomians, used to it, hardly ever think of making fires in their 
houses except in the few exceptional days of the winter season, and then 
they rely mainly upon fireplaces. This is like the custom of the Venetians 
and the Florentines. 

But give an Easterner six months of it, and he, too, learns to exist 
without a chill in a steady temperature a little lower than that to which he 
is accustomed at home. After that one goes about with perfect indifference 
to the temperature. Summer and winter San Francisco women wear light 
tailor-made clothes, and men wear the same fall weight suits all the year 
around. 

One usually entered the city by way of San Francisco Bay. Across 
its yellow flood, covered with the fleets from the strange seas of the Pacific, 
San Francisco presented itself in a hill panorama. Probably no other city 



CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER 177 

of the world could be so viewed and inspected at first sight. It rose above 
the passenger, as he reached dockage, in a succession of hill terraces. 

At one side was Telegraph Hill, the end of the peninsula, a height so 
abrupt that it had a 200-foot sheer cliff on its seaward frontage. Further 
along lay Nob Hill, crowned with the Mark Hopkins mansion, which 
had the effect of a citadel, and in later years by the great, white Fair- 
mount. Further along was Russian Hill, the highest point. Below was 
the business district, whose low site caused all the trouble. 

Except for the modern buildings, the fruit of the last ten years, the 
town presented at first sight a disreputable appearance. Most of the build- 
ings were low and of wood. In the middle period of the 70's, when a great 
part of San Francisco was building, there was some atrocious architecture 
perpetrated. In that time, too, every one put bow windows on his house, 
to catch all of the morning sunlight that was coming through the fog, and 
those little houses, with bow windows and fancy work all down their fronts, 
were characteristic of the middle class residence districts. 

MIXTURE OF ALL RACES. 

Then the Italians, who tumbled over Telegraph Hill, had built as they 
listed and with little regard for streets, and their houses hung crazily on a 
side hill which was little less than a precipice. For the most part, the 
Chinese, although they occupied an abandoned business district, had re- 
made the houses Chinese fashion, and the Mexicans and Spaniards had 
added to their houses those little balconies without which life is not life 
to a Spaniard. 

The hills are steep beyond conception. Where Vallejo Street ran up 
Russian Hill it progressed for four blocks by regular steps like a flight of 
stairs. With these hills, with the strangeness of the architecture and with 
the green gray tinge over everything, the city fell always into vistas and 
pictures, a setting for the romance which hung over everything, which 
has always hung over life in San Francisco since the padres came and 
gathered the Indians about Mission Dolores. 

And it was a city of romance and a gateway to adventure. It opened 

out on the mysterious Pacific, the untamed ocean, and most of China, 

Japan, the South Sea Islands, Lower California, the west coast of Central 
12— s. F. 



178 CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER 

America and Australia that came to this country passed in through the 
Golden Gate. There was a sprinkling, too, of Alaska and Siberia. From 
his windows on Russian Hill one saw always something strange and sug- 
gestive creeping through the mists of the bay. It would be a South Sea 
Island brig, bringing in copra, to take out cottons and idols; a Chinese 
junk with fan-like sails, back from an expedition after sharks' livers; an 
old whaler, which seemed to drip oil, back from a year of cruising in the 
Arctic. Even the tramp windjammers were deep-chested craft, capable of 
rounding the Horn or of circumnavigating the globe; and t1iey came in 
streaked and picturesque from their long voyaging. 

In the orange-colored dawn which always comes through the mists of 
that bay, the fishing fleet would crawl in under triangular lateen sails, 
for the fishermen of San Francisco Bay are all Neapolitans, who have 
brought their costumes and their customs and sail with lateen rigs shaped 
like the ear of a horse when the wind fills them and stained an organge 
brown. 

IN THE REALM OF CRIME. 

Along the waterfront the people of these craft met. "The smelting 
pot of the races," Stevenson called it ; and this was always the city of his 
soul. There are black Gilbert Islanders, almost indistinguishable from 
negroes; lighter Kanakas from Hawaii or Samoa; Lascars in turbans; 
thickset Russian sailors; wild Chinese with unbraided hair; Italian fisher- 
men in tam o' shanters, loud shirts and blue sashes ; Greeks, Alaska Indians, 
little bay Spanish-Americans, together with men of all the European 
races. These came in and out from among the queer craft, to lose them- 
selves in the disreputable, tumbledown, but always mysterious shanties and 
small saloons. In the back rooms of these saloons South Sea Island 
traders and captains, fresh from the lands of romance, whaling masters, 
people who were trying to get up treasure expeditions, filibusters, Alaskan 
miners, used to meet and trade adventures. 

The Barbary Coast was a loud bit of hell. No one knows who coined 
the name. The place was simply three blocks of solid dance halls, there for 
the delight of the sailors of the world. On a fine busy night every door 
blared loud dance music from orchestra, steam pianos and gramaphones. 



CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER 179 

and the cumulative effect of the sound which reached the street was at 
least strange. Almost anything might be happening behind the swinging 
doors. 

For a fine and picturesque bundle of names characteristic of the place, 
a police story of three or four years ago is typical. Hell broke out in the 
Eye Wink Dance Hall. The trouble was started by a sailor known as 
Kanaka Pete, who lived in the What Cheer House, over a woman known 
as Iodoform Kate. Kanaka Pete chased the man he had marked to the 
Little Silver Dollar, where he turned and punctured him. The by-product 
of his gun made some holes in the front of the Eye Wink, which were 
proudly kept as souvenirs and were probably there until it went out in the 
fire. This was low life, the lowest of the low. 

Until the last decade almost anything except the commonplace and 
the expected might happen to a man on the water front. The cheerful 
industry of shanghaiing was reduced to a science. A stranger taking a 
drink in one of the saloons which hung out over the water might be 
dropped through the floor into a boat, or he might drink with a stranger 
and wake in the forecastle of a whaler bound for the Arctic. Such an 
incident is the basis of Frank Norris' novel "Moran of the Lady Letty," 
and although the novel draws it pretty strong it is not exaggerated. Ten 
years ago the police and the foreign consuls, working together, stopped 
this. 

These are a few of the elements which made the city strange and 
gave it the glamour of romance which has so strongly attracted such men 
as Stevenson, Frank Norris and Kipling. This lay apart from the regular 
life of the city, which was distinctive in itself. 

THE CALIFORNIAN'S CHARACTERISTICS. 

The Californian is the second generation of a picked and mixed stock. 
The merry, the adventurous, often the desperate, always the brave, deserted 
the South and New England in 1849 to rush around the Horn or to try 
the perils of the plains. They found there already grown old in the hands 
of the Spaniards younger sons of hidalgos and many of them of the 
proudest blood of Spain. To a great extent the pioneers intermarried with 
Spanish women; in fact, except for a proud little colony here and there, 



180 • CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER 

the old Spanish blood is. sunk in that of the conquering race. Then there 
was an influx of intellectual French people, largely overlooked in the his- 
tories of the early days, and this Latin leaven has had its influence. 

Brought up in a bountiful country, where no one really has to work 
very hard to live, nurtured on adventure, scion of a free and merry stock, 
the real, native Californian is a distinctive type; as far from the Easterner 
in psychology as the extreme Southerner is from the Yankee. He is easy- 
going, witty, hospitable, lovable, inclined to be unmoral rather than im- 
moral in his personal habits, and above all easy to meet and to know. 

Above all there is an art sense all through the populace which sets it 
off from any other part of the country. This sense is almost Latin in its 
strength, and the Californian owes it to the leaven of Latin blood. 

GAY LIFE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 

With such a people life was always gay. If they did not show it on 
the streets, as do the people of Paris, it was because the winds made open 
cafes disagreeable at all seasons of the year. The gayety went on indoors 
or out on the hundreds of estates that fringed the city. It was noted for its 
restaurants. Perhaps the very best for people who care not how they 
spend their money could not be had there, but for a dollar, 75 cents, 50! 
cents, a quarter or even 15 cents the restaurants afforded tHe best fare on 
earth at the price. 

The San Francisco French dinner and the San Francisco free lunch 
were as the Public Library to Boston or the stockyards to Chicago. A 
number of causes contributed to this consummation. The country all about 
produced everything that a cook needs, and that in abundance — the bay 
was an almost untapped fishing pond, the fruit farms came up to the very 
edge of the town, and the surrounding country produced in abundance 
fine meats, all cereals and all vegetables. 

But the chefs who came from France in the early days and liked this 
land of plenty were the head and front of it. They passed on their art 
to other Frenchmen or to the clever Chinese. Most of the French chefs 
at the biggest restaurants were born in Canton, China. Later the Italians, 
learning of this country where good food is appreciated, came and brought 
their own style. Householders always dined out one or two nights of 



CHINATOWN SECRETS LAID BARE BY DISASTER 181 

the week, and boarding houses were scarce, for the unattached preferred 
the restaurants. The eating was usually better than the surroundings. 

Meals that were marvels were served in tumbledown little hotels. 
Most famous of all the restaurants was the Poodle Dog, There have 
been no less than four restaurants of this name, beginning with a frame 
shanty where, in the early days, a prince of French cooks used to exchange 
recipes for gold dust, ' Each succeeding restaurant of the name has moved 
further downtown; and the recent Poodle Dog stands — or stood — on the 
edge of the Tenderloin in a modern five-story building. 

For on the ground floor was a public restaurant where there was 
served the best dollar dinner on earth. It ranked with the best and the 
others were in San Francisco. Here, especially on Sunday night, almost 
everybody went to vary the monotony of home cooking. Everyone who 
was anyone in the town could be seen there off and on. It was perfectly 
respectable. A man might take his wife and daughter there. 

On the second floor there were private dining rooms, and to dine 
there, with one or more of the opposite sex, was risque, but not especially 
terrible. But the third floor — and the fourth floor — and the fi'fth! The 
elevator man of the Poodle Dog, who had held the job for many years, 
and never spoke unless spoken to, wore diamonds and was a heavy in- 
vestor in real estate. 

There were others as famous in their way — Zinkard's, where, at one 
time, everyone went after the theatre, and Tate's, which has lately bitten 
into that trade, the Palace Grill, much like the grills of Eastern hotels, 
except for the price ; Delmonico's, w^hich ran the Poodle Dog neck and 
neck in its own line, and many others, humbler, but great at the price. 

A CITY THAT NEVER SLEPT. 

The city never went to bed. There was no closing law, so that the 
saloons kept open nights and Sundays at their own sweet will. Most of 
them elected to remain open until 3 o'clock in the morning, at least. 

"High society" in San Francisco had settled down from the rather 
wild spirit of the middle period; it had come to be there a good deal as 
it is elsewhere. There was much wealth, and the hills of the Western 
Addition were growing up with fine mansions. 



CHAPTER XII. 

NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM SURROUNDED BY A 
FRANTIC MULTITUDE. ' 

EVERY train from the West brought refugees from San Francisco, 
who gave graphic descriptions of the horrors of the earthquake and 
fire. Worn by the exposure, hardships and terrors of a two days' effort to 
escape from the stricken city, Mrs. D. M. Johnson, of Utica, N. Y., and 
Miss Martha S. Tibbals, of Erie, Pa., passed through Denver on their 
way home. 

''We were awakened in our room at the Randolph Hotel on Wednes- 
day morning by a terrific shaking, which broke loose fragments of the 
ceiling," said Miss Tibbals. "There followed a tremendous shock, which 
shook the building sideways and tossed it about with something like a 
spiral motion. When we reached the street people were running hither and 
thither. Some persons passing advised us to get on as high ground as 
possible, and wd started walking as fast as possible to the high parks back 
of the city. 

"Fire was breaking out in hundreds of places over the city and the 
streets were becoming crowded with hurrying refugees. Where they 
were unable to obtain horses, men and women had harnessed themselves 
to carriages and were drawing their belongings to places of safety. As 
we passed through the district where wealthy persons lived we saw 
automobiles drawn up and loaded before houses. Their owners remained 
until the flames came too near and then getting into the machines made for 
the hills. 

$2,000 HIRE FOR AN AUTOMOBILE. 

"We saw one man pay $2000 for an automobile in which to take his 
family to a place of safety. Before night we reached the summit of the 
Alta Plaza. People half clad, unfed, hysterical, searching for loved ones, 
crowded the ground. Beneath lay the burning city. 

"We passed the night sleepless with a panic-stricken multitude. In 

182 



NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 183 

the morning (Thursday) we started toward the harbor with the assistance 
of soldiers from the Presidio, who had already been on duty twenty-four 
hours. We got to the wharf and hoped to get a launch to Oakland. We 
were unable to do so, but were kindly treated by an old skipper, who was 
in deep grief because his mother had been crushed to death in their little 
house. He gave us coffee — the only nourishment we had excepting a few 
crackers in twenty-four hours. 

"The skipper saw the Government boat coming in the bay, and said 
if we could reach the Presidio wharf we could escape on the Government 
boat. We hurried toward the Presidio, greatly impeded by fissures which 
stretched long distances and around which we had to make our way. At 
the Presidio we were taken on board with other refugees and a short time 
later we were safe in Oakland. 

CLIMBED OVER BODIES. 

"I climbed over bodies, picked my way around flaming debris and 
went over almost unsurmountable obstacles to get out of San Francisco," 
said C. C. Kendall, a retired Omaha capitalist. "I arrived in San Fran- 
cisco the night before the earthquake. I was awakened by being thrown 
out of my bed in the Palace annex. I rushed to the window and looked 
out. The houses were reeling and tumbling like playthings. I hurried 
on clothing and ran into the street. There I saw many dead and the debris 
was piled up along Market Street. 

"I went to the office of the Palace Hotel. Men, women and children 
were rushing about, crazed and frantic, in their night clothes. The first 
shock lasted only 28 seconds, but it seemed to me two hours. A few min- 
utes after I reached the Palace Hotel office the second shock came. It 
was light compared with the first, but it brought to the ground many of 
the buildings that the first shock had unsettled. 

"Fires were breaking out in every direction. Market street had sunk 
at least four feet. I started for the ferry. It was only a few blocks from 
the Palace annex to the ferry, but it took me from 6 o'clock until 10.15 
to cover the space. Men and women fought about the entrance of the 
ferry like a band of infuriated animals. I made my escape — I do not 
remember how, for I was as desperate as any of them. As the boat pulled 



184 NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 

over the bay the smoke and flame rose successively high, and the roar of 
the falHng buildings and the cries of the people filled tlie air. 

"The first I remember of the earthquake was finding myself in the mid- 
dle of the floor where, with chairs and other bits of furniture, I had been 
thrown," said G. F. Burgner, a business man of Osceola, Wis. AVith 
his wife and two daughters he had registered at the St. Francis Hotel 
in San Francisco the night before the disaster. "With my family I 
rushed downstairs. We pushed our way through the crowded streets, 
where every one was hurrying here and there. Some were pulling trunks 
behind them. Bricks, stone and all sorts of debris filled the roadway, 
and we had a difficult time in making our way to the water front. An 
electric launch w^as moored there, and on it we escaped to Oakland. 

"The groans and cries of those held under the timbers of the collap- 
smg buildings were pitiful to hear, and the worst of it was that nothing 
could be done to save them." 

PEOPLE ROLLED DOWN STAIRS. 

"The room seemed to twist out of shape," said Mr. Harriman, "and 
the furniture was disarranged. The door stuck, and it required all my 
strength to open it. Men were shouting, w'omen screaming hysterically 
and everybody was endeavoring to get to the elevators and stairways. 
It was soon discovered that the elevators were not running, and the people 
fell and rolled down the stairs. 

"My wife and I descended, and on the first floor found a mass of peo- 
ple whom the hotel employes were imploring to remain there, as it was the 
safest place, but all seemed determined to get outside. Dressing as we ran, 
my wife and I found that we had grabbed up enough clothes to present 
a respectable appearance, except that we had no shoes. We gradually 
fought our way to the ferries, 

"All along the way we saw bodies of human beings. Some had been 
crushed by falling walls, others had jumped from high buildings, while 
still others had been trampled to death by the excited populace. Horses, 
having broken their hitch reins, were dashing frantically along the streets, 
knocking people dow^n. We finally got aboard a ferryboat and landed 
on the other side of the bay. We took the first train for the East." 



NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 185 

"I was in a Southern Pacific train twenty miles from San Francisco 
when the shock came," said Frederick Droege, of the Licking Rolling 
Mills, Covington, Ky. "Passengers were tumbling out of their berths 
into the aisle. The conductor stopped the train and looked to see what 
we had hit. Nobody could find out what it was. Some one suggested 
an earthquake, and we ridiculed the idea. We went on a few miles, 
and looking out of the window saw that the chimneys of the houses had 
fallen over. Further on two great fissures appeared on each side of the 
track, where the earth had opened. A little further we saw that the 
Santa Fe track, next to ours, had sunk out of sight where there had been 
a deep fill. Then we realized that it was an earthquake all right." 

AUCTION FOR CHANCE TO FLEE. 

Arthur Woodson, of Chicago, who was in the Palace Hotel at the 
time of the earthquake, said: "After breakfast I hustled around to get 
over the bay to Oakland. A few hacks were in commission, and a regular 
auction was being held over the seat sold to each passenger. The prices 
ranged from $20 to $100. I got a seat in one of the hacks for $35. There 
were three other men in it that paid $50 for seats. We had to go to the 
ferry in a roundabout way, and when we had covered several blocks 
two men hailed the driver. They offered $100 apiece for the privilege 
of riding to the ferry. The driver took one up on the box with him, handed 
me my $35 and made me get out so that his $100 passenger could get into 
his carriage. 

"I hailed the next hack that came along and got up on the box beside 
the driver. Another fellow from the sidewalk called out that he would give 
S75 to be taken to the ferry, but I told the hack driver that I would throw 
him off the box if he stopped, as he had no room either inside or out 
for another passenger." 

O. M. Nichols, a New York traveling salesman, fled from the Palace 
Hotel, leaving a vest behind in which was $200. He paid $30 to ride 
two blocks to the ferry in an automobile, and was one of a party which paid 
$250 for a tug to take them to Oakland. 

"I shall never forget the scenes at the ferryhouse," Mr. George Mus- 
grove said. "It was bedlam, pandemonium and hell rolled into one. There 



186 NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 

must have been lo.ooo people trying to get on that boat. Men and women 
fought like wild cats to push their way aboard. Clothes were torn from 
the backs of men and women and children indiscriminately. Women 
fainted, and there was no water at hand with which to revive them. Men 
lost their reason at those awful momenets. One big, strong man beat his 
head against one of the iron pillars on the dock, and cried out in a loud 
voice : 'This fire must be put out ! The city must be saved !' It was awful. 

THOUGHT END OF WORLD HAD COME. 

"When the gates were opened the mad rush began. All were swept 
aboard in an irresistible tide. We were jammed on the deck like sardines 
in a box. No one cared. We were out of the smoke-filled atmosphere 
and were on our way to a place of comparative safety. One peculiar thing 
is that almost every one thought that the end of the world was at hand. 
Native sons of San Francisco had experienced earthquakes before. This 
was something new. It was not an earthquake. It was something worse. 
They had no communication with the outside world. Naturally, they im- 
agined that the disturbances which were taking place in Frisco were being 
repeated all over the country. This belief was universal. The freaks of 
the earthquake were marvelous. Some of the streets were twisted, others 
showed the effects of the earth waves and were a mass of little depressions 
and undulations." 

Mrs. Jessie Rudisill, of Denver, was in the San Marco Hotel, v/hich 
was wrecked. She stayed in the hotel Wednesday until ii A. M. She said: 

"When we were told we must leave the hotel we walked and walked. 
All day we walked and watched the fire. The streets were crowded 
with people just wandering about and looking at the flames ever leaping 
higher. We made our way to the St. Francis, only a little way off, on Van 
Ness avenue. But to reach there it seemed as though we walked miles 
and miles. They had no room for us at the St. Francis. But we just had 
to stay there. There was no other place to go. 

"Descibe the scene? It was like the burning of Rome as we see it in 
fireworks. It was the wrath of God for the wickedness of the city — for 
the hell dives, for underground Chinese dives. Why, they tell me there 
is nothing in Paris, nothing anywheve to equal the depravity of San 



NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM J8'7 

Francisco. It was God's judgment, this earthquake. I believe it. I 
beheve it." 

With the wondrous changes in the earth's strata which occurred in 
San Francisco in a few moments on Wednesday, came corresponding 
changes in the social, financial, business, racial and other strata in the beau- 
tiful city near the Golden Gate, which, if not as thrilling, yet were almost 
as interesting as the mighty upheaval by nature's great forces. Just as 
quickly as were proud buildings leveled to the ground, just so quickly 
were leveled the barriers which had separated folk in all walks. In a 
twinkling the whole structure of city life was changed, just as was the phy- 
sical structure, and the contrasts made by the changes were just as marked. 

Following the shocks came a stupor which fell over all. As the horror 
of the situation grew upon them the feeling was one of utter hopelessness 
and indifference to their fate. Men and women walked the streets aimlessly, 
not trying to avoid falling walls and firebrands, seemingly careless whether 
or not death would come. 

TERRIFYING SCENES IN CAMPS. 

The scenes in the camps of refugees which dotted the city were ter- 
rifying in their very simplicity — men and women appear to have returned 
to the primitive — the disaster had left no distinctions. Those who a few 
short days before enjoyed wealth and social distinction lived in their rude 
hovels or wandered about the street, suffering from the first pangs of hun- 
ger they had ever known, without a murmur or complaint. 

Deaths and burials went on without grief ; births were heralded with- 
out joy, save for the women who crowded about the shelters and fondled 
the little ones who gazed for the first time in life on a scene of strife and 
misery. Altogether the women bore the calamity better than the men. 
Starvation had for them but little terror, and they roamed aimlessly around 
unmolested in and out of the ruins and thronging camps without fear. 

The humian passions were mingled strangely in this vast city where, 
suffering prevailed. Late Friday night a young woman who was Tuesday 
the mistress of every luxury she could wish was seated with a group of 
tearful shop girls near the city side of Golden Gate Park. A costly robe 
had been blackened and burned by the falling ashes. A staggering figure — 



188 NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 

that of a man — appeared, making its way wearily from the city. Near the 
group he fell. The crushed crown of an opera hat was stuck grotesquely 
on his head, a broad expanse of what had been an immaculate shirt front 
was reddened and grimy from the blood which flowed from a deep gash 
on his forehead. His face was black, his throat so parched that he could 
not utter a sound. 

The girl caught him as he fell and sat with his head in her lap while 
from his lips issued strange unearthly sounds until death came. The man 
was a young broker, well known in San Francisco, and the girl was his 
fiancee. They had attended the opera on Tuesday night, and when they 
met again he had been working in the midst of the fire district for almost 
seventy-two hours. The girl held his lifeless body until a detail of 
soldiers were forced to wrest him "from her, and he was buried. 

"THANK GOD FOR THE REGULARS." 

"Thank God for the regulars," said everybody. They were the 
steadfast hope of the people and policed like heroes and ruled like fathers. 
In the central part of the city they checked the outrageous famine prices 
to starving people. When Thursday morning broke, lines formed before 
the stores whose supplies had not been commandeered. In one of these 
the first man was charged seventy-five cents for a loaf of bread. The 
corporal in charge at that point brought his gun down with a slam. 

"Bread is ten cents a loaf in this shop," he said. 

It went. The soldier fixed the schedule of prices a little higher than 
in ordinary times, and to make up for that he forced the storekeeper to 
give free food to several hungry people in line who had no money to pay. 
In several other places the soldiers used the same brand of horse sense. 
There were no cases reported of actual starvation, although many came into 
Oakland hungry, ready to grab food and choke it down like animals. 

The soldiers took the cue from General Funston. He was the real 
ruler of San Francisco, and was doing the best job he could. Thursday 
all the military tents available were set up in the Presidio and the troops 
were turned out of the barracks to bivouac on the ground. In these 
shelter tents they were placing, first, the sick; second, the more delicate 
of the women, and third, the nursing mothers. 



NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 189 

Thursday afternoon General Funston ordered the dead buried at once 
in a temporary cemetery in the Presidio grounds. The recovered bodies 
were carted about the city ahead of the flames. Many lay in the city 
morgue until the fire reached that; then it was Portsmouth Square until 
it grew too hot; afterward they were taken to the Presidio, There was 
another stream of bodies which had lain in Mechanics' Pavilion at first, 
and had then been laid out in Columbia Square, in the heart of a district 
devastated first by the earthquake and then by fire. 

The condition of the bodies was becoming a great danger. Yet the 
troops had no men to spare to dig graves, and the young and able-bodied 
men were mainly fighting on the fire line or utterly exhausted. It was 
Funston who ordered that the old men and the weaklings should take the 
work in hand. They did it willingly enough, but had they refused the 
troops on guard would have forced them. It was ruled that every man 
physically capable of handling a spade or a pick should dig for an hour. 
When the first shallow graves were ready, the men, under the direction 
of the troops, lowered the bodies, several in a grave, and a strange burial 
began. The women gathered about crying. Many of them knelt while 
a Catholic priest read the burial service and pronounced the absolution. 

GIRL FOLLOWS FATHER'S BODY. 

Many of the dead, of course, will never be identified. A story came 
of one young gi'rl who had followed for two days the body of her father, 
her only relative. It had been taken from a house on Mission Street to 
an undertaker's shop just after the quake. The fire drove her out with 
her charge, and it was placed in Mechanics' Pavilion. That went, and 
the body rested for a day at the Presidio, waiting burial. With many 
others, she wept on the border of the burned area, while the women cared 
for her. 

The sacrifices were innumerable. A man who had in some manner 
obtained a bottle of water and was hurrying to share it with a comrade 
before touching it himself, was checked by the sight of a dry-eyed woman 
fondling a wailing infant. Thirst was stamped plainly on their faces. 
The man started to pass on. A second cry again stopped him, and he 
turned and thrust the precious bottle into the woman's hands. 



190 narratut: of a victim 

"Give it to the kid," he said. "I'll get some more." And he started 
back on his hopeless quest. The man was one of the most -notorious 
characters in the Tenderloin, and it is understood later he "vvas bayonetted 
by soldiers while in tlie act of looting a house. 

It was in the city's many parks where the refugees gathered that the 
strangest sights of the week were seen. By each little group, lying out 
on the grass and under the trees, would be a small bundle of household 
belongings. Up and down the broad avenues of the parks tlie troops 
patrolled, keeping order. This was difficult at times, for the second 
hysterical stage succeeded the paralysis of that first day, and people were 
doing strange things. A man. nmning half naked, tearing at his clothes 
and cr}'ing. "The end of all things has come!" was caught by the soldiers 
and placed under arrest. Under a tent on the broad lawn of the children's 
playground a baby \\"as bom. By good luck, there was a physician there. 
and the women helped out. so that the mother appeared to be safe. They 
carried her later to the children's building in the park and did their best 
to make her comfortable. 

DEATHS CAME FREQUENTLY. 

The deaths came frequently. Physicians were everywhere in evidence, 
but without medicine or instrtiments were fearfully handicapped. Men 
staggered in from their herculean efforts at the fire lines, only to fall 
gasping on the grass. There was nothing to be done. Injured lay 
groaning. Tender hands were willing, but of water there was none. 
"Water, water; for God's sake, get me some water." was the cry that 
struck into thousands of souls of San Francisco. 

From Fort Mason, where most of the Italians and Spaniards from 
Telegraph Hill had passed the night, there started an early morning 
exodus. Friday, for the ferr>-. A priest of the Church of St. Peter and 
Paul — the Church of the Fishennen they call it in San Francisco — had 
saved from the church the Host, vesmients and sacred vessels. Early in 
the morning he set up an altar in the open and said mass. 

One of the refugees on the shores of Lake Merced. Thursday morning 
spied a flock of ducks and swans which the city maintained there for the 
decoration of the lake. He plunged into the lake, swam out to them and 



NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 191 

captured a fat drake. Other men and boys saw the point and followed. 
The municipal ducks were all cooking' in five minutes. A man with a loaf 
of bread in his hand ran up to a policeman on Washington Street. "Here." 
he said, "this man is trying to charge me a dollar for this loaf of bread. 
Is that fair?" 

"Give it to me." said the policeman. He broke off one end of it 
and stuck it in his mouth. "I am hungry myself." he said, when he had 
his mouth clear. "Take the rest of it. It's appropriated." The regulars. 
who had been remarkably cool and had not had a wink of sleep, had strict 
instructions to brook no interference, and but few quarrels arose. These 
were stopped with bullets. 

In contrast to the action of the men from the Government reservation, 
calm, self-contained and decisive, was that of the volunteers and the 
various cadets who had been sworn in to do police duty. The experience 
of carrying loaded amis resulted disastrously in a number of instances. 

A group of cadets were standing- near a half-burned home when a 
man made his appearance and started to enter. The Ix'ty — he was scarcely 
more than nineteen — called to the man to halt, and when the other turned 
and started towards him. the lad. his arms twitching with nervousness, 
raised his rifle and fired. The other fell mortallv wountled. It was sub- 
sequently learned that the man killed was entering his own home. 

SUFFERER MAKES LARGE DONATION. 

Mrs. Hugh Cruni, a wealthy property owner, reported to the Relief 
Committee that all her income-bearing- property had been destroyed, but 
that she had a little money in the banks which she proposed to divide 
equally with the Relief Committee. She. therefore, subscribed $10,000 
to the relief fund. ^lany other persons of comfortable circumstances were 
roming to the aid of the committee, and food supplies of all kinds were 
being furnished the needy. 

For two days and nights a squad of police were perfoniiing patrol 
duty in Golden Gate Strait. Two lieutenants and eight men aboard the 
tug "Sea Rover" Friday night prevented the departure of several vessels 
from the harbor for the reason tb.at they carried food. Among them were 
the barkentines "Eureka" and "Barracuda," bound for Portland, with 



192 NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 

considerable supplies on board. All vessels stopped and were compelled 
to drop anchor in the stream or return to the dock, where the food was 
unloaded and turned over to the authorities. 

There was another side to the work of the troops. The looting grew, 
and with the irritation of burning nerves the men became more impatient 
of looters and lawbreakers. There were mistakes and there were excesses 
of authority. One man was shot in the burned Mission district for washing 
his hands in drinking water, which had been brought in at great trouble for 
the thirsty people packed into Columbia Park. It was said, also, that a 
bank clerk, watching the ruins of his bank under orders, was killed by a 
soldier, who thought that he was looting. There became a persistent 
rumor of an attempt to rob the Mint, in which a number of robbers were 
shot. The shooting of men actually engaged in looting became more and 
more common. Life was cheap for those who did not respect military rule 
on the edges of the burning hell. 

The consideration which was shown by men of all classes to the 
women appeared remarkable. The cases of insult to the unprotected — of 
whom there were thousands — were few. 

KILLED FOR INSULTING GIRLS. 

Strict orders were given to the military regarding the protection of 
the weaker sex, and were carried out to the letter. 

In Golden Gate Park, which resembled a vast bivouac, with its 
myriad of twinkling campfires, two young girls were accosted by two 
men, evidently the worse for liquor, which they had obtained in some way. 
The girls were dressed in hurriedly-snatched ball gowns, donned during 
the first terror of the earthquake. Scarcely had one of the men spok^^n 
when, without a word of warning, a sentry from the Presidio, who was 
standing near, fired and the man dropped, a bullet in his heart. The other 
man started to run, but was brought down by a second shot and placed 
under guard. 

All Thursday wagons mounteci with barrels and guarded by soldiers 
drove through Golden Gate Park doling out water. There was always a 
crush about these wagons and only one drink was allowed to a person. 
Separate supplies were sent to the sick in the tents. The troops allowed 




First train load of supplies sent out by The Evening Telegraph 
for the relief of sufferers in the stricken city. 




>. 



03 
> 

(/) 

c 
o 
O 



"J 



o DC 



00 



73 



C 
> 

o 
c 

73 



(L) ^ I 



o 

c 

o 
O 

>-' 

O 

< 
> 

UJ 

Z 

O 

u 



-70 

c 

c 
o 

"I! 



C 

CD 



12 


r! 


o 


f 1 




rt 


w 


(U 


> 


^ 




ol 


-M 


V 


c 


m 


o 


-73 


Dh 


(iJ 





c 






CQ 



Q 
Z 

< . 

< I 

a: 3 

Ho 

< « 




\IE\V ON MARKET 5 IREET. San Franosco. 




GENERAL FREDERICK FUNSTON 

COMMAND OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS AT SAN FRANCISCO DURING THE 
GREAT EARTHQUAKE AND TERRIBLE CONFLAGRATION. 




MAYOR EUGENE E. SCHMITZ of San Francisco, Cal. 




GOVERNOR PARDEE of California. 



NARRATIVE OF A VICTIM 193 

no campfires, fearing that the trees of the park might catch and drive the 
people out of this refuge to the open and wind-swept sands by the ocean. 
The wind, which had saved the heights, came cold across the park, 
driving a damp fog, and for those who had no blankets it was a terrible 
night. Many were exhausted and could not sleep even in the cold; they 
threw themselves down in the wet grass and fell asleep. 

When morming came the people even prepared to make the camp 
permanent. An ingenious man hung up before his little blanket shelter 
a sign upon a stick, giving his name and his address before the fire wiped 
him out. This became a fashion, and it was taken to mean that the space 

was pre-empted. 

13— s. F. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CREMATING THE DEAD AND FEEDING THE LIVING. 

WITH eyes on the future and with memories of past prosperity acting- 
as inspirations rather than discouraging sorrows, San Francisco 
seemed to have forgfotten its comfortable homes and the luxuries of the 
metropolis and came back to first principles. The people entered into the 
spirit of beginning again, and were accepting camp life philosophically 
and as a part of the process of the return of better things. All were fed, 
there was water for all and the relief measures were progressing with the 
orderly routine instituted by the civic and military authorities. This was 
the fourth day after the disaster. 

One of the many measures taken to prevent the spread of disease 
was the burning of 200 bodies found in the Protero district, south of 
Shannon Street, in the vicinity of the Union Iron Works. These bodies 
were cremated at the Six-Mile House by order of Coroner Walsh, and the 
announcement was made at the Board of Health headquarters. So many 
dead were found in this limited area that cremation was deemed absolutely 
necessary to prevent an epidemic of sickness. The names of some of the 
dead were learned, but in the majority of cases identification was impos- 
sible, owing to the mutilation of the features. 

The total number of bodies recovered up to Sunday night and either 
buried or burned was 500. No complete record could be had, as many 
bodies were buried without permits from the Coroner and the Board of 
Health. The searchers of the Coroner's department and the Board of 
Health found twenty bodies during the day. Whenever a body was found 
it was buried immediately, without any formality, and these burials were 
made at widely separated points. 

The body of an infant was found in the center of Union Street, near 
Dupont. There was nothing by which it could be identified. It was learned, 
however, that a number of persons had camped at this place, and it is 
presumed that the child died and was left when the party was forced to 
move. Three bodies were found in the ruins of a house on Harrison 

194 



CREMATING THE DEAD 195 

Street, between First and Second. They had been burned beyond all 
possibility of identification. They were buried on the North Beach. 

Operators on duty at the jMarket Street ferry house were frightened 
by the noise of some timbers falling in the afternoon, and, believing that 
another earthquake shock had occurred, fled from the building. The news 
that a new earthquake shock had visited the city was flashed across the 
country, but the report was contradicted quickly. 

The authorities announced that the food supply was ample for the 
present, and that the city mains were carrying water which would soon 
be enough to meet all needs. 

The sanitary conditions were improving under the efficient work of 
the health officers and volunteer engineers, who were also preparing to 
clear the streets. Governor Pardee, of California, announced his belief 
that the salvation of the city was being worked out successfully, and that 
a finer metropolis would be reared over the ruins. 

WATER SUPPLY RESTORED. 

Experts of the Spring Valley Water Company, who had been engaged 
in making a thorough examination of the mains and reservoirs of the 
system, reported that the company had in its reservoirs enough water to 
supply the city at the regular rate of 35,000,000 gallons per day for a 
period of 600 days. The only immediate problem was that of getting this 
supply of water into the city. Already pipes had been repaired in certain 
sections, and a supply of 7,000,000 gallons per day was coming in through 
Ocean \^iew from Lake Merced. About 1,000,000 gallons of this was 
being consumed daily by Ocean View and the other towns along the pipe 
lines, but 6,000,000 gallons daily was reaching and would continue to reach 
the city proper. 

The Board of Health reported a very encouraging health condition, 
considering the circumstances. Sickness was constantly on the decrease. 
Sanitary conditions in the residence districts were being improved. Major 
Frank Keesling, in charge of Golden Gate Park, made this report to 
General Funston : 

'T beg to advise you that not a case of serious sickness exists in this 
park. All rumors to the contrary are false and malicious. I will promptly 



196 CREMATING THE DEAD 

advise you if there is any change, or if anything of a serious nature 

occurs." 

The Engineering Department of the United States Army, having in 
charge the work of erecting temporar)^ buildings in Golden Gate Park for 
the relief of the sufferers, announced that eight buildings were finished. 
These buildings were cut into compartments large enough to furnish 
sleeping room for a family, and each compartment had an entrance from 
the outside. Lumber was being delivered at the park in large quantities, 
and 135 carpenters were at w^ork on the temporary buildings. 

A large corps of volunteers started at work on Saturday removing 
all cans of garbage to the curbs. Wagons were being pressed into service 
and the garbage removed to the burned districts, where it was destroyed. 
Most of the sickness was among the people who were living out of doors, 
and it was upon these cases that the Board of Health was concentrating 
most of its attention. Hundreds of volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses and 
helpers were at work allaying suffering. Since the fire occurred there 
was no lack of volunteers for every kind of work. 

GREAT SCARCITY OF BEDDING. 

At the emergency hospitals, which were quickly established and at- 
tended by many physicians almost within a half hour's notice, the only 
complaint that really existed was the lack of bedding. Though the army 
and navy were called on for blankets, quilts and the like, the supply 
furnished by these departments was not enough, and the physicians feared 
that these conditions would prove serious if more bedding was not procured. 
This fear existed particularly at the Presidio and the eastern end of 
Golden Gate Park, where the winds are brisk and the morning air chilly. 

Only thirty patients were quartered in the territory that comprised 
the park emergency hospital, though 400 persons were treated since Wed- 
nesday morning. No deaths occurred at the park emergency hospital 
after Wednesday morning's shock. Over 100 physicians and attendants 
were serving in the park. New volunteers and inspectors who were being 
appointed by the Board of Health were assigned to districts other than 
the park, as the physicians were assured that the park emergency hospitlal 
was under perfect surveillance. 



CREMATING THE DEAD 197 

So far no difficulty was met with at the park in securing an ample 
supply of all that was needed for the care of the injured and ailing. Doctor 
Rottansi confisctated seven barrels of whisky from a nearby saloon and 
placed a guard over them, so that the liquor could be available for this 
purpose. 

Oakland furnished an engineering corps to assist in restoring the 
water supply and another to aid in cleaning the streets. The inspection of 
the sewers made by the Board of Public Works showed that the outlets 
to the systems in the residence section remaining unburned were tall in 
good condition save two. In the district south of Market Street few, if 
any, systems remained. In the business district no inspection was made. 

The committee having in charge the relief of the hungry reported that 
every homeless man, woman and child in San Francisco was being cared 
for, and that there was no suffering on the score of either food or drink 
within the city. 

The committee was estfablishing new relief stations wherever needed. 
In addition, at many points on the outskirts individual or independent 
organizations were working in connection with the committee. The relief 
of the needy was being accomplished magnificently. Cars and steamers 
laden to their capacity with food and medical supplies were pouring into 
the city from every point along the coast and throughout the State, and 
as this supply was assured as a permanency, there was not the slightest 
fear of any lack of food or drink. 

DISTRIBUTING CARGO OF SUPPLIES. 

The Pacific Mail steamship "China," wtih ia cargo including a large 
quantity of foodstuffs, which arrived on Saturday from the Orient, was 
docked at Oakland in order that the supplies could be distributed there. 
The shipping of San Francisco was at a standstill, and such will be the 
state of iaffairs while the city is in the least endangered. The United 
States cruisers "Chicago" and "Marblehead" were stationed off Meiggs 
wharf and prevented every vessel, whether foreign or domestic, from 
sailing out of the harbor. The vessels were being held to be ready for 
any emergency that may arise. 

The Federal authorities removed all the customs restrictions from th^ 



198 CREMATING THE DEAD 

cargo of the steamer "Chinia" as soon as possible, and the rice, tea and 
other foodstuffs from the Orient were taken off the vessel and sent to 
the aid of the stricken Chinese. 

Weddings in great number resulted from the disaster. Women, 
driven out of their homes and left destitute, appealed to the men to whom 
they were engaged, and immediately marriages were effected. Since the 
first day of the disaster an increase in the number of marriage licenses 
issued wias noticed by County Clerk Cook. This increase was getting 
greater. Saturday morning seven licenses were issued in an hour. 

"I don't live anywhere," was the answer given in many cases w^hen 
the applicant for a license w'as asked where his residence is. "I used to 
live in San Francisco." 

On Sunday Governor Pardee said: 

"The situation is as good as can be expected, considering the greatness 
of the calamity that has befallen us. The nation and the world are taking 
great interest in our welf'are and showing material and financial aid. The 
matter of a special session of the Legislature is still under consideration. 
What we need especially is medical stores, clothing and shelter for the 
refugees. Of course, food will be needed in considerable quantities for 
some time to come. An epidemic does not exist at present. It is not 
probable that there will be any necessity for ordering a quarantine. The 
work of building San Francisco has commenced, and I expect to see the 
great metropolis replaced on a much grander scale than ever." 

WASHINGTON'S RESPONSE. 

The wave of sympathy which spread over the country in response to 
the new's from San Francisco seemed to have its crest in Washington. 
While President Roosevelt and Congress gave official expression to it, 
the city itself responded magnificently in contributions. One impressive 
feature of the situation was the refusal of aid from outside the United 
States. It is not exaggeration to say that millions of dollars would have 
come from foreign nations to the treasury of the American National Red 
Cross if the latter would have accepted the donations. It is a matter of 
pride, however, with the Government and the American people generally, 
that they can take care of their own needy. 



CREMATING THE DEAD 199 

Messages expressing- the sincerest appreciation of the generous tenders 
of aid were sent on behalf of the Red Cross to the Guatemalan Govern- 
ment, to Canada, to Canadian Pacific Railroad and the Chinese Minister. 
The Guatemalan Congress voted a contribution of $10,000 to be sent to 
the sufferers through the Red Cross. The Canadian Government tendered 
$10,000 and the Canadian Pacific Railroad a like sum. 

Sir Chentung Liang Cheng, the Chinese Minister, offered to the Red 
Cross $4800, which had been contributed by Chinese consuls, members of 
the legation and other Chinese. This was declined, like all other foreign 
gifts, but the minister was asked by the Red Cross to send the first 
secretary of legation to San Francisco to aid in distributing relief to the 
Chinese in that stricken city. 

Word was sent out by the Red Cross through its various agents to 
have organized in every part of the country clubs or societies of ladies 
who would undertake the collection of clothing and other necessaries for 
immediate shipment to San Francisco. These societies were to operate 
in conjunction with the Red Cross, just as they did at the time of the 
Johnstown disaster. 

LOOKING OUT FOR BABIES. 

With keen appreciation of the danger threatening the babies in San 
Francisco, the Red Cross at St. Louis dispatched a carload of condensed 
milk to the coast. Its agents also all through the West began the system- 
atic purchase of fresh eggs, the supply of which in nearly all of the cities 
in California was reported as exhausted. These purchases were being 
made in the States just east of the coast and were being made through 
army officers at army prices. 

Treasurer Keep, of the Red Cross, in Washington, reported on Sat- 
urday the receipt of $40,000, in addition to $50,000 received the day 
before. With the contributions made to the New York branch, a fund 
of half a million was already available. The funds are being telegraphed 
to Judge Morrow, the California agent of the Red Cross. 

On Sunday a special train left Washington, carrying medical officers 
of the army and navy. Tt was the purpose to pick up army doctors en 
route until at least one hundred would be carried to San Francisco. The 



200 CREMATING THE DEAD 

activity at the War Department continued as intense as ever. There was 
no cessation in the orders for supplies of all kinds, and many officers in 
the department had no sleep for two nights. 

The following- appreciative tribute to the magnificent response for 
help is by one of our leading newspapers: 

"The one ray of light in the gloom created by the calamity at San 
Francisco is afforded by the truly magnificent display of brotherly love and 
sympathy shown, not alone by the people of this country, but by those of 
the whole civilized world. The hearts of men and women have been 
deeply touched by the blow which has fallen on their fellows, and they are 
showing by deeds of generous helpfulness, on a scale almost unprece- 
dented in the annals of a free-handed and lavish people, those higher 
qualities of heart and mind which ennoble mankind and differentiate it 
from the brute creation. 

NATION STIRRED TO CHARITY. 

*Tn the face of an appalling and death-dealing disaster, rendering 
an entire community dependent for the bare necessities of life and putting 
it in imminent danger of greater horrors, the nation has been stirred as 
it has not been for many generations, and there have been awakened those 
deeper feelings of brotherhood which are referred to in the oft-quoted 
passage about the kinship aroused by 'one touch of nature.' It is impos- 
sible for the finite mind to imagine the full extent of the misery and 
suffering created by such an upheaval of the elemental forces of nature 
as that which has occurred on the Pacific Coast ; the attempt to picture the 
details even vaguely makes too great a draft upon the imagination, too 
terrible a drain on the sympathy. 

"But the simple realization that thousands of fellow-beings are per- 
haps at this moment suffering for food and water, for clothes and shelter; 
that the visitation which has come to one community may at any moment 
be the fate of others-j-it is this 'one touch of nature which makes the 
whole world kin' and translates the feeling of sorrow and pity into action. 
There is something incomparably splendid in the spectacle of an entire 
nation straining every nerve to send succor to the helpless and the suf- 
fering, and this spectacle has warmed the hearts that were stunned by the 



CREMATING THE DEAD 201 

magnitude of the calamity. The nation is finding reHef in action, the 
iiniversaHty and spontaneity of which is one measure of the sincerity of 
its grief and its sympathy. 

"Such a spectacle as is now being presented throughout the length 
and breadth of this land, and in many another land as well, where cities 
and towns, corporations and individuals, are vying with one another in 
generous rivalry as to which shall be the first to feed the hungry and 
succor the suffering and the shelterless, must be a grateful one to all who 
have preserved their faith in the higher ideals and destinies of the race. 

"What is going on to-day all over the world, but particularly through- 
out America, must give the lie to the pessimist and the croaker, for it 
reveals the falsity of the version which pictures modern society as wholly 
cynical, selfish and indifferent. Preoccupied it may be; too often engrossed 
in its own affairs to notice the prosaic every-day instances of wrong and 
suffering it often is; but when aroused by some great emergency, the real 
heart of humanity is revealed and the world is the better for the awaken- 
ing. No good deed is ever lost, either to the recipient or the doer, and 
the gracious effects of such an outpouring as the present will be a double 
benediction. 

NEW AND SPLENDID CITY PROMISED. 

"Where San Francisco lies prone in its ashes, and looks up to its 
desolated hills, will arise a new and splendid city. Yet when it has been 
builded, and the bitterness of the present time forgotten, then will abide 
a sense of loss. The old San Francisco is no more, and never can it be 
recalled save as a memory. The local color, atmosphere, that which 
might be termed temperament, vanished with the clustered houses, as rich 
in tradition as the ancient missions in whose cloisters worshiped the* 
Spanish padre 'before the Gringo came.' 

"While many Americans knew San Francisco, more of them knew 
Paris, London and Rome. To most of them this fair city of their own 
land was as a place distant and foreign. But such as entered it, and 
learned of its people and their ways, learned to love it. Unique it was, 
almost grotesque perhaps, certainly defiant of precedent in its customs, its 
pleasures, its manner of living. One who had stood on an eminence there, 



202 CREMATING THE DEAD 

beholding a vision of ocean, bay and circling mountains, had seen the bil- 
lowing ifog banks roll in through the Golden Gate, crowning the abrupt 
slopes of Saucelito until in the sky there seemed a range of fantastic moun- 
tains, in their phantom valleys shifting lakes that changed tints with the 
sun, remembered ever after a panorama beautiful and appealing. This 
picture no fury of rocking earth may destroy. 

"But the scenic impressiveness only prepared the mind for apprecia- 
tion of that part of San Francisco which has been swept into history, and 
which hardly may be described. It was a very essence, a subtle difference, 
not so much in mental attitude and moral perception and warmth of fellow- 
ship — although all of these quickly might be discerned — as in the form of 
the expressions these qualities had taken. One of San Francisco's charms 
was in its defiance of precedent. There were hills to be conquered, and 
San Francisco's expanding traffic hurled itself at the face of them. It 
went up and up, with no thought of finding a way around. So it happened 
that on some of the streets the steepness was too great for horses. In the 
centre there are cable roads, and on either side of the rails grass grows 
through the cobbles. 

OLD BUILDINGS OF THE TOWN. 

"The earlier structures on the level were put together in haste. For 
the most part they remained essentially unchanged until they fell with a 
crash. True, they had become stained by time, unkempt, dwarfed by new 
neighbors, but nobody desired to efface them. Away from the business 
section houses appeared on the various hills, perched precariously near the 
brink; houses reached by long flights and grown over with roses. The 
bathing fogs touched them with gray. Mosses grew on their roofs. In the 
little, lofty yards calla lilies bloomed with the profusion of weeds. But 
inside these homes what hospitality ! as inside the rickety restaurants down 
toward the water front there was cheer. The 'two bit' dinner of the 
Italian or Mexican chef in New York would have cost ten times as much. 
Those whom they drew into comradeship, no matter from what rank in 
Bohemia or of Philistines astray, were made acquainted with a pervasive 
equality not witnessed elsewhere in civilization. 

"The natural beauty of the site, the quaintness of the commercial and 



CREMATING THE DEAD 203 

social development of which it became the centre, attracted the poet and 
the artist. It incited them to paint the attractions and to sing the praises 
of their chosen habitat. For the outside world, who cared? Surely not 
they. They lived in a world of their own, and it was good enough. Now 
and then some member of the group went to the larger world outside, and 
perchance found fame, but the heart of the wanderer turned back to the 
gray and shadowy city. 

"Here Stevenson paused before going to the islands to die, and 
made his home in a rookery. Happy and content was he, as he sat for 
hours in Portsmouth Square, where now a monument to his memory has 
been jarred askew. Here young Norris gathered the inspiration for his 
books. Here, too, in an older day, Bret Harte did his best work and 
Twain found his real beginning. 

THE NEW MARCH OF IMPROVEMENT. 

"On another plane — that of the clubs — there prevailed a similar habit. 
Pleasure was courted ; to offer the stranger greeting was part of the code. 
To instruct him that however desirable a place he had come from it must 
be less desirable than San Francisco was a matter of course ; never done 
aggressively, but with the final word that admitted no denial. This higher 
Bohemia has suffered, too, but it can survive. The club may rebuild, with 
the stores, the offices and the mansions, and be better equipped than ever. 
The spirit of the club has not been crushed. It is in the humbler walks 
that the blow has fallen. The antique structure that no fire ordinance 
would permit in a modern city ; the elevated cottage that the architect never 
dreamed ; the uprising street ending against a cliff, all these the march of 
improvement will obliterate, scattering the people to whom they were dear, 
and making all things new, precise, according to rule. 

"Even the absence of Chinatown will be a loss. There never will be 
in America such another. Garish with gold and purple; rich in secrets 
the police had failed to fathom ; its people retaining the dress and traits of 
the Orient ; honeycombed with subterranean passages ; full of strange sights 
and sounds and smells, with the contrasts of riches and squalor, industry 
and vice, it was alone of its kind. It occupied some of the best territory, 
and long had been wanted for other purposes. Now the Chinese really 



204 CREMATING THE DEAD 

must go, and the odor of sandalwood and opium, the stores of scented 
drugs, inwrought vases and carved ivories sought by every traveler, must 
be sought elsewhere, 

"The people of San Francisco know the shock of calamity, but they do 
not know defeat. They will have their city again. It cannot be the old 
city, nor suggestive of the old. Disaster seems to have swept away the 
barriers that afforded pleasing isolation. The new San Francisco will be 
as other prosperous cities, its distinctiveness only that which springs from 
its site as an outpost overlooking the Pacific." 

The following account of San Francisco will be of special interest to 
the reader: 

San Francisco's history leads back to the days of '49, with their 
romance and their glamour ; days when a trip to the Pacific was an arduous 
task of months across plains where hostile natives harried ; or in the 
mountains, with the peril of avalanche and flood. The other course was 
around the Horn by ship, or across the Isthmus, where the menace of fever 
lurked. The result was that the early settlers were men of reckless daring 
or exceptional hardihood. The women who followed were of two classes. 
One was made up of adventuresses ; the others were women of high charac- 
ter, a courage as lofty as men ever knew, and happily for the development 
of the West the latter women became the social basis, the motherhood so 
distinct that it seemed for a generation that of a new people. 

DEVELOPING THE MINING CAMP. 

The Eastern settlers found the Spanish in full possession. Castillian 
beauty reigned, with the house of the commandant at the Presidio a sort of 
centre. The Spanish element soon was crowded out, and by process in 
part legal, and in all respects inevitable, the aliens took full possession. 
To-day the Spanish linger only in names that the settlers never dis- 
turbed, although the trace of their blood is to be seen in the tawny cheek 
of many a native Californian proud of his ancestry. 

For a time the development of San Francisco was that of the average 
mining camp. The people had no thought that on the peninsula dividing 
the ocean from the placid bay they were to find a permanent abiding place. 
They were far away from the Federal Government, and they had no regu- 



CREMATING THE DEAD 205 

larly constituted courts. Disorder had to be dealt with, and when the 
territory had formally become American this duty was undertaken. The 
lawless were convinced with suddenness that there was law, and that its 
arm was mighty. The thief, the thug, the crooked gambler, were given 
fair warning and then short shrift. Portsmouth Square, the place now 
opposite the Hall of Justice, and whither citizens scared by the earthquake 
fled for refuge, was the scene of many a hanging. The people who acted 
as judges and executioners were the best of the day, and some of them 
live yet to recount the tale, while their children have developed into the 
leading spirits of commerce, education and social growth. 

From the time of its founding San Francisco has been the most im- 
portant city of the Pacific Coast, Built on a peninsula, it covers forty- 
seven miles about midway of the Californian Coast, Its safe and ample 
harbor and the fact that it was the outpost of possible expansion made its 
greatness a certainty. It has had its ups and downs, but never a doubt 
as to its ultimate destiny. While much of the business part of the city is 
virtually at sea level, the residence portions are several hundred feet in 
elevation, this being true of Nob Hill and Pacific and Presidio Heights. 
In addition to these, Russian Hill rises almost cliff-like in the side it presents 
to the sea, while the same may be said of Telegraph Hill, an eminence that 
stands just where the waters of the bay curve gracefully to join the narrow 
strip that leads out through the Golden Gate, giving ships their sheltered 
passage to the open sea. 

ONE OF THE WORLD'S PICTURESQUE CITIES. 

San Francisco is — or must the record be was? — one of the most 
picturesque cities in the world. Its skyline, serrated by domes and pinna- 
cles, was deeply impressive, whether viewed from across the bay or from 
the ocean. Even the fogs that often enwrap it lent to it a mystic charm. 
The town of San Francisco progressed moderately for a number of years, 
and then the great fortunes that had been made began to be devoted to its 
upbuilding. Fashionable folk erected mansions on Rincon Hill, a locality 
long ago abandoned by them. There they lived in homes decorated by 
foreign artists. 

In later years San Francisco began to have its millionaire class. One 



206 CREMATING THE DEAD 

group of four comprised Stanford, Hopkins. Crocker and Huntington. 
They built the Central Pacific Road, and out ot it each made stupendous 
riches. Three of the four signalized their new estate by putting up on 
California Street a series of palatial homes. Huntington did not build, 
but subsequently bought a house adjoining Crocker's, it being the duplicate 
of a famous Italian villa. The Stanford and Hopkins houses ultimately 
became the property of the State University. The others generally stood 
empty, save for caretakers. All have been destroyed. All the builders are 
dead. Huntington having survived the longest. 

THE MACKAY GROUP. 

Another group of four of equal celebrity was made up of Mackay, 
Fair, Flood and O'Brien. Their money was made in mining and in stock 
speculation. When first taken with the idea that the Comstock held wealth 
for them they were engaged in running a saloon at the scene of the Nevada 
excitement. All excepting Mackay have long been dead. Before his death 
Mackay was known to the world as the leader in great enterprises. The 
men of these groups left their distinctive mark upon San Francisco. They 
put their money into advancing it. They inspired a faith in the city. Their 
sons are now known in the world of finance, and their daughters are 
familiar figures in the society that draws upon the capitals of the world. 

The climate of San Francisco is unique. There is neither heat nor 
cold known to it. There is no series of four seasons, but a division into 
wet and dry, the winter being the wet. Semi-tropical plants flourish in the 
open throughout the year. The parks are at their greenest and the trees 
in fullest splendor at the Christmas holidays. Roses bloom ever}'- month of 
the year. The clothing worn is of the same weight during the twelve 
months. Many houses had no method of heating, and others had open 
fireplaces, where there is as likely to be a blaze in summer as in winter. 

Most of the streets are wide, although this is not the case in the lower 
quarters. They were lined with a good class of houses, with a large share 
that were fairly entitled to be called mansions. Even the most costly of 
these, as a rule, were of wood. The Flood house, costing more than a 
million, and that of Claus Spreckels, the two of his sons, John A. and 
Adolph, and that of one of the Crockers, were exceptions. 



CREMATING THE DEAD 207 

In the adornment of its streets and parks, and in its public buildings, 
San Francisco was lavish. So, too, have its capitalists been in the finish 
of business buildings. The banks, stores, hotels and offices of San Fran- 
cisco, in every detail of artistic nicety, equaled those of New York. But 
even the waning of the old fear of earthquakes never permitted the build- 
ings to be sent so high as they go in any Eastern city, eighteen stories being 
the limit, and twelve a standard for modern structures. 

THE MUNICIPAL WORKS. 

The city government has been able and measurably free from corrup- 
tion. It is virtually without a debt, and has a habit of having in its treasury 
several millions of dollars in actual coin. The public libraries would be a 
credit to any city. The municipal buildings were on a generous scale, and 
architecturally much commended. In the matter of fire protection, light 
and transportation facilities there was no city in the land more advanced. 
The Mayor preceding the present incumbent. Schmitz. was James D. 
Phelan, whose father made a vast fortune in trade, and who is a public- 
spirited gentleman. Although one of the heaviest individual losers by the 
catastrophe, he, together with Claus Spreckels', whose individual loss also 
runs into the millions, was quick to subscribe liberally for the benefit of the 
suffering. Such an act may be cited as showing the spirit that built one 
San Francisco, and viewing the ashes, undismayed, sets about building 
another. 

As the city grew there were acquired forms of wealth that cannot 
be stated in dollars. It was the seat of museums, of art collections, of 
noble private libraries. Its churches, rich in appointments, had begun to 
become hallowed with age. Its schools, its clubs, its restaurants, its palaces 
stocked with goods, have been destroyed, but with them more than mere 
material. They all bore the mark of the local color, an atmosphere ob- 
served in no other place, San Francisco was unique among American 
cities, clinging to customs and respecting traditions. Years ago, when 
communication was by steamer, and the steamer called every two weeks, 
settlements had to be made twice monthly. That circumstance established 
"steamer day" and "steamer day" was still a fact, to the sudden ending of 
business. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN THE PARKS 
DRENCHED BY RAIN. 

DRENCHING rain fell upon San Francisco Monday night. From 
midnight until 3 o'clock it poured and drizzled at intervals, while 
a high wind added a melancholy accompaniment, howling and sighing 
about the buildings of the burned district. Five days before, when the fire 
catastrophe was in its infancy, this downpour would have been regarded 
as a mercy and a Godsend. Monday morning it could be regarded in no 
other light than as an additional calamity. 

It meant indescribable suffering to the tens of thousands of persons 
camped upon the naked hills and in the parks and open places of the city. 
Few of these were provided with waterproof covering. For the most part 
their only protection from the wet was a thin covering of sheeting tacked 
upon improvised tent poles. Through this the water poured, wetting the 
bedding and soaking the ground upon which they lay. When it is under- 
stood that thousands upon thousands of delicately-nurtured women and 
infants in arms, and old and feeble persons, were in this plight, nothing 
need be added to describe the misery of their condition. 

The downpour aggravated the already unsanitary condition of the 
camps and added great numbers of pneumonia cases to those already 
crowding the regular and temporary hospitals of the city. What could 
be done was done by the guards in charge of the camps to relieve the 
distress. Wherever covering could be had for the women and children 
it was taken advantage of. They were housed in chill and cheerless 
churches, in garages and barns, and those who had saved their homes were 
called upon to take care of the unfortunates exposed to the storm. 

With few exceptions those who had homes responded readily to the 
new call made upon them, and where they did not the butt ends of rifles 
quickly forced a way through inhospitable doors. While the storm added 
to the difficulties of the general committee, especially of those having in 
charge the care of the sick, the sanitation of the city and the housing of the 

208 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 209 

homeless, it was a spur to even greater efforts to bring order out of the 
chaos prevaiHng. 

Regular shelter tents were to be provided, as well as cots standing off" 
the ground. It was realized that these provisions were imperative, as much 
so as the providing of food. After several hours of clear weather there was 
another precipitation at 6 A. M., and again at 9 o'clock the fall was re- 
sumed and continued at intervals throughout the day. 

MAN'S EFFORTS FOR FAMILY. 

Of individual instances of suffering the number was legion, but one 
will tell the story of them all. About 4 o'clock, when the rain had been 
falling heavily for an hour, a middle-aged man, white-faced in his distress 
and fatigue, appeared at the headquarters of the general committee. He 
had walked two miles from his camping place in the park to make an appeal 
for his suffering wife and little ones. 

As he told of their distress tears coursed down his cheeks. His wife 
and children were, he said, without covering other than a sheeting over- 
head, and were lying on the naked ground, and their bodies protected only 
by a quilt and blanket, which of his household bedding were all he had 
managed to save. These had quickly been soaked, and, while unwilling to 
complain on his own account, he could not bear to listen to the wails of 
his loved ones, and had tramped all the way from his camping place to 
the committee headquarters in the hope that there he might find some 
means of getting his family under shelter. 

Major H. C. Tilden, a prominent commission merchant of this city, a 

member of Governor Pardee's staff and one of the foremost workers of 

the General Relief Committee, was shot and almost instantly killed in his 

automobile early in the morning at Twenty-second and Guerrero Streets, 

while returning from Menlo Park. He was shot by members of the 

citizens patrol. Hugo Alltschul, a coachman, who was in the automobile, 

was cut in the face by a bullet, and another ball pierced the seat and struck 

the back of R. G. Seaman, acting lieutenant of the Second Company of 

the Signal Corps. The force of the bullet was spent and Seaman suffered 

no injury. 

Major Tilden had taken his three children and a nurse from the 
14— S. F. 



210 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

Fourteen-Mile House, where they had been since the earthquake, to Menlo 
Park, where he had a summer cottage. His automobile had been used as 
an ambulance in conveying sick and wounded to the hospitals, and the Red 
Cross flag was displayed on the car. Besides this, he had the Red Cross 
insignia on his right arm. According to Seaman, six men stood in the 
middle of the road at Twenty-second and Guerrero Streets, separating 
when the car got within fifty feet of them. When the car was within ten 
feet of the guard, Seaman says, the guard began shooting without warning 
or challenge, and kept on firing after the car had passed them. 

"The car had gone about fifty feet past the patrol," said Seaman, 
"when it stopped suddenly. Tilden, who was operating the car, fell 
towards me, saying, 'Well, they got me — they killed me.' He then 
dropped back in the seat and rolled out of the car. 

*T sprang up and fired five shots in quick succession at those who were 
still shooting behind us. A doctor came running from a house near by, 
and, after examining Tilden, said he was dead. Several policemen came 
running up and arrested three of the men who did the shooting." 

The killing of Tilden caused the greatest indigation. Boyneton, one 
of the men under arrest, declares that he did not see the Red Cross flag on 
Tilden's car, and when the latter did not stop when challenged, he fired. 
Seaman then began shooting and Simmons and Vance replied. 

LIGHTS IN THE HOUSES. 

Sunday night was e of almost stygian darkness, the silence broken 
by the measured trea^'. of patrols and sentries, and an occasional shot. 
For the first time, lights were allowed in the houses, but only from dark 
until lo o'clock. 

A temporary detention hospital was established in the basement of the 
Sacred Heart School conducted by the Dominican Sisters, at the corner 
of Fillmore and Hayes Streets, and the first commitment since the earth- 
quake was made yesterday. The sisters of the Sacred Heart kindly turned 
over a part of the already crowded quarters to the insanity commissioners, 
and a number of patients were housed there. An insane Chinese at the 
Presidio Hospital was killed by a delirious Federal patient. The China- 
man's skull was crushed with an iron bar. 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 211 

A permanent sanitary camp for the Chinese left in the city was estab- 
Hshed immediately in the blocks bounded by Franklin and Octavia, Chest- 
nut and Bay Streets. The camp was laid out and constructed under the 
direction of the army engineers. The government supplied for this pur- 
pose 4,000 shelter tents. A number of large manufacturing companies 
arranged to receive and care for refugees at their respective plants along 
the eastern shore of the bay. Two thousand seven hundred and fifty per- 
sons were accommodated. 

Fully 30,000 persons were being fed by the government at the Presidio 
and North Beach. Provisions were being bountifully supplied to all who 
made application, and as yet there was no suffering from hunger. Tents 
were being distributed. More than 10,000 were given, and the authorities 
intended to continue the distribution so long as the supply lasted. 

Barracks were erected in Golden Gate Park to accommodate 15,000 
persons. 

ORDERS FOR CITY GOVERNMENT. 

General Funston issued an order from which the following are ex- 
tracts : 

"Lights are authorized between sunset and 10 P. M. In case lights 
are burning after this hour, sentinels will investigate quietly and inform 
the occupants that orders require lights to be extinguished at 10 P. M. 

"In houses no fires will be permitted in stove grates, furnaces or other 
fireplaces having exit through chimney flues, unless the occupants of the 
house hold a certificate issued by authorized inspectors showing the chim- 
neys in proper condition. Oil stoves may be used. 

"All persons, except suspicious characters, will be permitted to pass 
sentinels without interruption, provided they are orderly and do not de- 
stroy, molest or appropriate property not their own. 

"The division commander desires to impress upon the troops the 
importance of temperate action in dealing with the unfortunate people who 
are suffering from the awful catastrophe that has befallen them. He de- 
sires also the assistance of the people, for whom every effort possible is 
being made. Assistance, food supplies, tentage and blankets are beginning 
to come in very rapidly, and in a very few davs it is believed that sufficient 
supplies of all kinds will be regularly distributed. 



212 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IX PARKS 

"It is particularly requested that no person permit himself to receive 
more of any kind of supplies than are absolutely necessary-. 

"Our greatest danger in the future may be expected from imavoidable 
unsanitar}- conditions, and ever)- person is cautioned that to violate in the 
slightest degjee tlie instructions of the sanitan,' officers would be a crime 
that could have no a\-ailable punishment." 

Food was never more plentiful in San Francisco, and tlie only trouble 
was its proper distribution. The committee on feeding the hungr}- reported 
the most satisfactory- progress in the huge task and had fifty-two establish- 
ments where the hungT\- could obtain food. From all points news of ap- 
proaching relief trains was coming in and already sufficient p^o^-isions had 
accumulated at the Oakland pier to supply the needs of the city for more 
than a week. Plain food of ever}- description was plentiful and luxuries 
were beginning to arrive. 

There were an abundance of meats for steAving. tliough all the finer 
cuts were used at the hospital. Immense cattle trains were rolling north- 
ward from the prairies of the soutliwest and chickens and eggs were com- 
ing from nearby towns. The most pressing need was for vegetables. 

The condition of the 5.000 persons camped in Jefferson Square was 
terrible. Xot more than five per cent, had an army tent, and makeshifts 
were constructed of carpets, bed sheets and ever\- imaginable substance. 
They were inadequate to keep out the lieaN-)- rain that fell. 

WEAPONS TAKEN AWAY. 

Qiief of Police Dinan issued an order to police captains Instructing 
them, in view of the carelessness of persons granted the privilege of ca.TTy- 
ing firearms, to make all persons discontinue carr^-ing weapons. The only 
government department in the San Francisco Custom House in which work 
was continued during the day of the fire was that of Survevor of the Port 
Woodward. He and his chief deputy, Giauncey M. St. John, were at their 
desks by 9 o'clock in the morning and remained there all day. The fire 
crept up toward them from the water front and finally was on all four 
sides of the building. 

Amid the roar of the conflagration, the crash oi falling walls, the 
excitement attending the work of the 150 jackies who sa%-ed the building. 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 21S 

their work went on uninterrupted. Inspectors fought their way to the 
building, reported to St. John and received further orders regarding their 
work along the water front. It was a severe test, but neither the surveyor, 
nor his inspectors showed any inclination to abandon their posts. 

Freaks of the earthquake and incidents of the disaster were described 
by refugees who were arriving here from San Francisco at Salt Lake: 

"There were ludicrous scenes even in the saddest hours," said L. E. 
Ryter. a Salt Lake mining man. '*I never saw so many parrots, canary 
birds, mocking birds and pet dogs together in my life. I saw a pet dog 
on the seat of an automobile, the owner of which would not stop to take 
in any wounded man on the sidewalk. 

"One thing will always remain in my memor\'. On a pile of bricks, 
stones and rubbish was thrown the body of a man shot through the heart, 
and on his chest was pinned a placard: 'Take warning!' It was a most 
effective way to terrorize those who would steal. 

'Tt was grand to see the spirit of men who had lost fortunes them- 
selves in cheering up the poor ones who had lost things of no great value. 
*\\'hy. I lost $200,000.* said one. '^^'hat is your baby carriage to that? 
Cheer up! It will all come out in the wash.' " 

FREAKS OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 

Another^ arrival described freaks of the earthquake. One of the 
churches on Van Ness Avenue had a mosquelike dome. The building was 
blown down, all the walls falling away, but the steel structure, invisible at 
a distance, remained, supporting the dull gray dome, which seemed floating 
in the air like 'a balloon. Among the queer sights witnessed by this nar- 
rator was a lone woman patieiitly pushing an upright piano along the 
paveiuent a few inches at a time and a woman lovingly emt)racing a Japa- 
nese dog. 

Miss Ina G. Bothwell. a student, tells of incidents at Stanford L'niver- 
sity. A girl was dressing in one of the sorority houses, when the floor 
gave way. Her companion looked up, saw that she was gone and shrieked : 
"Where are you. Mary?" 

"Oh. I am in the parlor." replied the girl, calmly, as she wriggled out 
of the heap of plaster and mortar below. 



214 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

One man, at least, according- to Miss Bothwell, missed what would 
have been the experience of a lifetime, because he did not wake up. Al- 
though the fraternity house was almost razed to the ground, this man, 
whose name she did not learn, slept on, and was still sleeping when they 
rescued him from the ruins. 

J. J. Daly, a wealthy mine owner, escaped with his wife and four 
children. He left the Charlemagne Hotel in his automobile, but the police 
made him give it up to carry the wounded. Speaking of his experiences, 
he said : 

"The policing of the city was perfect under the circumstances, and I 
want to give unstinted praise to the chief and his brave men. We finally got 
over to Oakland, and in a half-starved condition entered a restaurant there. 
Six of us ate a hearty meal, and the check was only $i.6o," 

A THRILLING TALE. 

With the arrival of the 12.17 train from the West on Monday the 
first of the San Francisco sufferers passed through Philadelphia. Among 
them was Frank Du Bois, a real estate dealer, living at 11 Van Ness 
Avenue, San Francisco. He left Oakland at 6 o'clock on Wednesday, the 
day of the earthcjuake. Still bearing the bruises of the knocks he received 
when thrown from his bed by the shocks, Mr. Van Ness told a thrilling 
story of the appearance of the stricken city. He said: 

"I was in a sound sleep about 5 o'clock last Wednesday morning, 
when suddenly I was thrown to the floor as if taken around the waist and 
hurled into space. Jumping to my feet in a dazed condition, I found the 
floor on which I was standing rocking like a rowboat in the wake of an 
excursion steamboat. The bed and bureau were dancing around the room 
in a most astounding manner. I had never been through an earthquake 
before, and I did not know what the trouble was. 

"On endeavoring to open the door I found it jammed tight, and had 
to take a chair and demolish the door before I could leave the room. In 
the hallway I found my two children and my brother, panic-stricken, be- 
cause they could not find their way from the house. Picking up the chil- 
dren, I dashed throiiqh the front window, with my brother following. 

"XMien we reached the street we found our neighbors on all sides, 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 215 

attired only in their night clothes. For the first few moments every one 
was nearly crazy, the men even worse than the women. Some thought the 
end of the world had come, and dropped to their knees and offered prayers 
for their deliverance. Others cursed and stormed and acted like lunatics. 

"I left San Francisco for Oakland at 9 o'clock on Wednesday morn- 
ing, as I had made arrangements to come to New York on a business trip. 
At that time there did noteseem to be any great fear of fire, but as I went 
through the street I saw hundreds of persons on their way to the hospitals 
to have their injuries attended. I did not see any dead, and did not realize 
the extent of the disaster. 

"The horror of the tragedy did not strike me until 4 o'clock in the 
afternoon, when it appeared from Oakland that the whole city of San 
Francisco was burning. I endeavored to get back to the city to take care 
of my family, but the police would not allow me to return, so I started 
East, as I had planned." 

The Transcontinental limited had as passengers two survivors of the 
San Francisco earthquake, Frank Humboldt, a broker, of New York, and 
Herbert Alwee, a real estate agent, living on Nob Hill, San Francisco. 

PANIC IN A STREET CAR. 

At the time of the first shock Mr. Alwee was on a cable car passing 
through Chinatown. He said : 

*T was on my way to a train for the "East when the first shock came. 
Coming down from Nob Hill, I took a car on Clay Street about 5 o'clock 
on Wednesday morning, and when we were just opposite the old Plaza, 
now known as Portsmouth Square, we felt the first trembling of the earth. 

"There was a tremor, as though some one had shaken the car, and 
when we were looking at each other — there were only eight of us in the car 
— the second shock came. I was thrown from my seat into the lap of a 
laborer, who had himself been thrown to the floor of the car. We were 
all quiet except the conductor, who was kneeling on the rear platform, yell- 
ing at the top of his lungs, 'Hell has broken loose!' He repeated that 
several times, and then he began to pray, several passengers following his 
lead. 

"Several of the old ramshackle buildings of that portion of China- 



216 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

town lying close about us had already fallen, and most of the other frame 
buildings were leaning over at an angle of 45 degrees, falling one by one 
at every moment. From their doors there issued a motley throng of 
Chinamen, clad only in their queerly figured pajamas, fighting among 
themselves in fear that one might find a better means of escape than the 
other. Here and there in the crowd, growing larger and more turbulent 
every moment, was a small group of painted white women, what we call 
in 'Frisco 'the white Chinese.' Strange to say, such a group was always 
accompanied by a mighty Chinese guardian, w^ho hewed a way through the 
throng for the women in his charge. I saw one of the women go mad from 
fear, striking out at her own protectors, and then escape from their cus- 
tody. 

WOMEN PRAYED WITH CHINESE. 

"In Portsmouth Square an attendant in one of the Joss houses in a 
nearby street had erected a temporary altar to one of the many deities of 
the Chinese, and this was for the moment the Mecca for all the faithful. 
Here there were gathered fully a thousand Chinamen, and among them 
were a score of the painted women, worshiping at the same pagan shrine 
with their Chinese masters. And then the new terror that came after the 
earthquake, the lurid glare of the flames against the sky, the frightful 
messages of peril seen everywhere about the doomed city." 

The new San Francisco that will rise from the ashes of the old was 
in its first stages of rebuilding. After five days of confusion and almost 
superhuman effort on the part of citizens of California's metropolis, the 
great task of sheltering, feeding and otherwise caring for the homeless 
thousands, complete order was established and attention turned to the 
future. 

Throughout the great business quarter, where the devastation by fire 
was the most complete, dangerous walls were razed, buildings that had 
not been disintegrated by fire were inspected with a view of reoccupancy, 
and ground was cleared for the immediate construction of buildings in 
which to resume business at the earliest possible time. 

Confidence was restored. The assurance of insurance companies, the 
measures taken by the financial institutions, the prompt and reassuring 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 217 

words that reached the business men of San Francisco from Eastern 
financial centres, all these things dispelled the feeding of uncertainty. 
Property owners had an opportunity to inspect some of their holdings 
and, in a measure, ascertain what damage had been done. 

STEEL BUILDINGS ALMOST INTACT. 

The new modern steel buildings were found to be almost Intact. In 
every instance it seemed that the earthquake had not damaged them. The 
steel frames were in perfect plumb and as strong as ever. Cornices and 
fancy trimmings fell, but that was all. Even when the fire swept through 
them only the woodwork was damaged. The Fairmount Hotel, on Nob 
Hill, will be completed; the Claus Spreckels Buildings on Market and 
Third Streets will be occupied. The Union Trust Building, at Mont- 
gomery and Market Streets, only lost the interior woodwork, and as soon 
as men put in the lumber it was ready for occupancy. The St. Francis 
Hotel was in the same category, and the work of renovating the interior 
was commenced. An inspection of the Call Building, at Third and Market 
Streets, disclosed the fact that several of the floors of the building were 
in good condition, and could, after slight repairs, be used. 

The Monadnock Building, on Market Street, next to the Palace Hotel, 
was found to be in first-class condition. Even the woodwork in the interior 
of the building was intact, and the owner announced that within ten days 
he would be renting ofiices in this building. The Monadnock is a large 
structure of steel and brick, almost completed when the fire came. 

Three train loads of dynamos, telegraph instruments, Wheatstone 
machinery, etc., and a dozen Wheatstone operators, in charge of Chief 
Electrician McKissick, of Chicago, arrived at Oakland Monday night, con- 
signed to the Western Union Telegraph Company. A plant was imme- 
diately established at West Oakland, and the congestion of messages was 
greatly relieved. The Western Union cables to Oakland were tested and 
found to be in perfect condition, which would indicate that communication 
between San Francisco and Oakland was restored. 

The Postal Company was rapidly instaling its dynamo plants and 
duplex instruments in Oakland. The officials said that from present indica- 
tions the headquarters of the company would be at Oakland for a fort- 



218 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

night at least, possibly longer. The Commercial Cable Company reported 
that its underground city lines in San Francisco suffered no damage from 
the earthquake shock. 

One fortunate condition still remained with San Francisco. There 
was an abundance of gold and silver coin available in the vaults of the 
United States branch mint incthe city. The mint had almost completed 
its coinage for the fiscal year when the earthquake and fire interrupted this 
operation. Furnaces and grate chimneys were to be ready to start up at 
an hour's notice if suitable power could be obtained. 

A significant indication of the early restoration of law and order and 
safety was the fact that there was not a soldier or city police officer guard- 
ing the many millions of dollars in the vaults of the mint. The soldiers 
and other guards were dispensed with the first day of the fire. The heavy 
rains did not weaken the walls left standing in the burned area, according 
to the Building Commissioner. Menacing walls are dynamited as fast as 
possible. 

MILLIONS IN COIN AVAILABLE. 

The national government appropriated $1,500,000 for the relief of 
the California earthquake sufferers on Monday, the 23d, which sum, added 
to the $1,000,000 appropriated several days before, brought the total con- 
tribution authorized by Congress to $2,500,000. This money was ex- 
pended under the direction of the Secretary of War. 

The first step in the movement towards giving San Francisco all the 
material she will need to rebuild with, and at the lowest possible price, 
was taken at Washington, when Representative Gaines, of Tennessee, in- 
troduced a bill admitting free of duty all goods, wares or merchandise 
which may be imported into the United States as gratuitous contributions 
for relief of the earthquake sufferers, and consigned to the Governor of 
that State, the Mayor of San Francisco, the Secretary of War or the Sec- 
retary of Commerce and Labor. 

E. H. Harriman, president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, 
sent the following message from Oakland, Cal., to the offices of the rail- 
road company in New York : 

"Having gone over the situation in San Francisco, I am deeply im- 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 219 

pressed with the necessity of uninterrupted forwarding of foodstufifs witK 
which to feed the 200,000 homeless people. The situation is well organ- 
ized, and the United States Quartermaster's Department is receiving 
and distributing through its channels and through the various local relief 
associations all supplies as fast as they arrive ; but the fact should be made 
public in all quarters that it will require continued effort on the part of 
every one to keep supplies coming. The railroads are, of course, handling 
all such supplies without charge, and the people must respond to calls for 
relief." 

TO KEEP ACCOUNT OF MONEYS. 

In order that the public should have an accounting of how its money 
was expended and its supplies distributed after the relief work has come 
to an end, President Roosevelt on Sunday wrote to Miss Mabel T. Board- 
man, of the Red Cross Committee, requesting that the organization send 
an expert accountant to San Francisco to keep the accounts. Miss Board- 
man replied that United States Judge Morrow, president of the California 
Red Cross branch, would appoint an accountant at once in San Francisco. 

President Roosevelt was much concerned over the press reports that 
the Chinese residents in San Francisco might be overlooked in the distribu- 
tion of relief. The President communicated with Secretary Taft, with 
the result that Acting Secretary Oliver sent the following telegram to Gen- 
eral Funston at San Francisco: 
"Dr. Edward T. Devine, Red Cross, San Francisco. 

"According to newspaper reports suffering and destitution liable to 
become peculiarly great among Chinese. Nothing known of the matter 
here beyond press reports. At suggestion of the President, I am author- 
ized to say in name of Secretary Taft, president of society, that Red Cross 
work should be done wholly without regard to persons, and just as much 
for Chinese as any others. Please see that this is done. Secretary of 
War will instruct General Funston to co-operate with you in this matter. 
Have already given to first secretary of Chinese LegaticMi, who has left 
for San Francisco, a letter to you asking that he be extended all possible 
assistance in relieving distress of Chinese. 

"McGee^ Secretary." 



220 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

"President directs you furnish same shelter and camping facilities to 
Chinese as to others, and that you co-operate with Red Cross in relieving 
suffering or destitution among them. Use your own discretion as to 
whether special camps shall be established for them. Government sup- 
plies must be furnished and government protection afforded. 

"Oliver, Acting Secretary of War." 

NEWSPAPER COMMENT ON DISASTER. 

A prominent newspaper journal made the following comment on 
the appalling disaster: 

"Instantly, as is the sound American habit in great disasters, the work 
of planning for rebuilding has begun in San Francisco. The insurance 
companies will furnish the capital. One great realty owner of San Fran- 
cisco property in the East has announced his intention of at once rebuild- 
ing. The fire was still blazing when despatches for steel for construction 
began to be filed. The new San Francisco, taught by a terrible lesson, will 
adopt the steel construction which experience has shown resists the earth- 
quake shock and withstands fire. 

"The plan of the city and its distribution of quarters will doubtless 
be revised. The Chinese quarter occupied with all its loathsome reminders ' 
of the East, the most valuable of realty in the heart of the business quarter. 
The tenement quarters, with its frame buildings, was a survival of earlier 
days. More than one slum, like the 'Barbary coast,' had its evil begin- 
ning in days when San Francisco was still a great mining camp. 

"In a city as full as San Francisco is of local pride, of personal initia- 
tive and of a capacity for efficient organization, the improvement which 
Baltimore showed after the recent fire in street and building will be out- 
done on the Pacific Coast. The city is almost debt free, in part because 
its water supply is in the hands of a company. Its total bonded debt a 
year ago was only $4,245,100. Its realty valuation is $402,127,261, and 
its personalty is $122,258,406. If the buildings are gone the realty is still 
there, and new edifices will replace those shaken by earthquake and con- 
sumed by fire. With this sound financial condition, with the plan of the 
city open to revision and with great possibilities before the city, the next 
two years are about to see an amazing transformation. 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 221 

"No past record is to approach the great flood of reHef streaming to 
San Francisco from every quarter. The disaster of the city is the disaster 
of the land. Its loss is an universal loss and its relief an universal duty. 
In three days the subscriptions made for Chicago in over a month have 
been doubled. The close of the week sees the Johnstown relief doubled. 
Before the current month is over the sum subscribed will have reached 
$15,000,000, and may run to $20,000,000. 

"This vast sum, by the side of which all previous aid for like disasters 
seems small, is to come from this country alone. President Roosevelt will 
receive unanimous national approval in refusing the contributions tendered 
him by two steamships. The American people, prompt to succor all the 
world, rejoices to show that this crushing and sweeping calamity can be 
met from its own resources and relieved by the boundless liberality of the 
citizens of the great Republic. No like spectacle of well-planned, wide- 
spread and universal relief has ever been witnessed. Congress leads with 
its appropriations. The great cities are doing their share. Philadelphia, 
as is its habit, comes forward first in the line with the appropriation of 
$100,000. The interior and the Pacific Coast are following a like course. 
"Great disasters have been followed in the past by depressing accounts 
of misdirected effort. The National Red Cross, in its operation in the field 
under the direction of the Secretary of War, gives every prospect of efli- 
cient relief, conducted by trained agents, under military supervision. Swept 
by the two greatest disasters known to cities, San Francisco has instantly 
reorganized its new life under new conditions. 

REHOUSING THE MULTITUDE. 

Individual acts of heroism, numerous and bright as they are, stand 
as nothing by the side of the sobriety, the self-restraint and the order which 
has marked the vast army of 200,000 suddenly unhoused by this calamity. 
The grip of order has never been relaxed. After twenty-four hours of 
short supplies the municipality and the troops together have provided 
rations. Rehousing the multitude has already begun. 

Those who remember the disorder which swept over Qiicago after 
its fire, the difficulty, in spite of a like display of like qualities of restoring 
order, the challenge raised as to the prompt and necessary acts of General 



•222 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

Sheridan's sentries and tlie time tliat elapsed before tlie reorganization 
of society was over, can appreciate tlie advance which San Francisco shows. 
If this has been for six years past a land of great and colossal disasters. 
tliese catastrophes are met witli a courage and resolution as great. 
Experience counts for sometliing. even in tliese emergencies, and San 
Francisco. frc«i the hour of tlie first sliock. has sliown tlie stuff of whidi 
-\merican communities are made, clieerful. indomitable and self-controlled 
— always able in die wreck oi all things past to create a new order and 
tlie orderly supply of the necessities of life for all." 

Destructive eanhquakes are so infrequent that it is not generally 
appreciated that seismic shocks are really of almost daily ocairrence. 
Hardly a day passes without an earthquake occurring somewhere in tlie 
world. Most of tliese. fortunately, are mere quivers of the earth crust, 
and would pass unnoticed had not science invented the seismograph, a 
most delicate instrument, whidi records these feeble shocks. 

The -\mericaii continent furnishes almost one-half of tlie recognized 
eartliquake centers of the world. Excepting for tlie Caribbean region, 
these centers where seismic disturbances are frequent and expected lie 
along tlie Pacific Coast. Eartliquake shocks have been felt at \-arious points 
along tlie Atlantic sealx>ard of tlie United States, but. excepting tlie 
de\-astating earthquake at Oiarleston, tliese have been of slight importance, 
and ha\e not resulted in gjeat disaster. 

AUTHENTIC DATA NEEDED. 

Before the student of earthquakes can say a certain district is likely to 
be free from seismic tremors a great deal more autlientic data must be 
acquired. As it is. all that can be said of any section of the country is 
that it has or has not been frequently shaken. The cause of the Charleston 
earthquake, for instance, has not yet been deteniiined, but it is tnie that in 
recent years the origin of many earthquakes has been discovered. Many 
others, however, cannot be accounted for with certainty. 

Seismology, like meteorology, is not yet far enough advancevl to 
announce any invariable laws. It had been the opinion that serious earth- 
quakes never occurred on low lands which had a gentle gradient into the 
sea. The destruction of Charleston, while not nullifying this principle, at 



rXi^HELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 223 

least showed that it wns not to be considered as invariable. On the other 
hand, there are mountainous districts in which earthquakes are of great 
rarity and in which devastating shocks are unknown in historic times. 

The earthquake centers in the three Americas are almost as definitely 
charted as the islands in the seas. At the same time earthquake districts 
lying- close together will show that seismicity in them arises from totally 
different causes. One will plainly arise from a well-defined tectonic cause 
and the other will be unmistakably volcanic in origin. All earthquakes 
are in general assigned to one or the other of these two sources of origin. 
but labeling them in this way docs not explain fully what happens in the 
interior of the earth to cause the destructive action at the surface. 

Tn Japan there is a seismological society which already has filled many 
volumes with valuable transactions, observations, recorded data. etc. Japan 
is most prolific in earthquakes — almost looo are recorded every year in 
various parts of the empire — consequently it is a profitable field for seis- 
mologic research, and the present knowledge on the subject has been very 
considerably advanced by observations made in the Land of the Rising 
Sun. 

SCIENTIFIC STUDY RECENT. 

While earthquakes have been noted for the last 3000 years, they have 
been made the subject of scientific study for only a comparatively recent 
time. Many circumstances are responsible for this delay in attempting 
to collect and collate data in a systematic manner. One of the chief 
causes was the absence of an instrument to record the movements and 
duration of the seismic tremors. The invention of the seismograph has 
made possible the important progress of late years. It records even*' 
earthquake, no matter in what part of the world it is central, for every 
earthquake is felt all over the surface of the earth : but when it is thousands 
of_ miles distant the waves are not perceptible, excepting to the delicately 
balanced instrument designed to respond to the most feeble pulsation. 

Another valuable contribution to the science has been the tables of 
the distribution of seismicity prepared by De ^fontessus de Ballore. In 
these tables the obsen-ations have been brought down to recent times 
in those districts in which seismic occurrences have been most freciuent 



224 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

and best obsen-ed. They include all earthquakes recorded in historic times, 
and list a total of 131,292 quakes and 10,499 epicenters, or points of origin. 
The records, naturally, are incomplete, but sufficient data are given to 
show that earthquakes are of great frequency, and that practically they 
occur in every part of the world. The tables also show markedly that 
certain parts of the world are especially liable to be shaken, while in 
others seismicity is rare or at least infrequent. 

GREAT CIRCLE OF FIRE. 

The so-called "great circle of fire" around the Pacific Ocean is found 
to produce the largest number of recorded earthquakes. In Central Cali- 
fornia alone there were observed between i860 and 1897 no fewer than 
1096 earthquakes at 113 epicenters. Owari, Japan, is much more fre- 
quently shaken. 3356 shocks being recorded at 48 epicenters, or an average 
frequency of 24.74. The mean average of frequency at Tokio. however, 
is 92.2 ^. the highest average in the world. It should be remembered that 
these are seismologic observations, made of those shocks which were per- 
ceptible to the human senses without the aid of instruments. 

The study of the geographical distribution of earthquake centers 
brings out some significant facts, but at the same time it fails to account 
satisfactorily for some phenomena observed. As has been remarked, 
earthquakes are divisible into two classes, volcanic and tectonic, according 
to their causes. It is not always possible, however, to declare with confi- 
dence to which of these classes a particular quake should be assigned. 

One of the significant facts whenever the question of class arises is 
the situation of the epicenter with respect to an active or recently extinct 
volcano. Close proximity to a volcano raises a presumption that the quake 
is of volcanic origin. Tectonic quakes also have certain characteristics 
which, though not always exclusively exhibited by them, are much more 
common with them than with volcanic quakes, and znce rersa. 

There is in Japan a remarkable absence of any tendency of earthquakes 
to associate themselves with volcanoes. Most Japanese earthquakes orig- 
inate at sea. and their vibrations on land indicate that they have traveled 
a considerable distance, and that the disturbance which originated them 
must have involved a much higher aggregate of energy than is exerted 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS K26 

•ven In the most forcible volcanic quakes. The great Mino-Owari quake 
of 1 89 1 originated on land, and its obvious cause, clearly disclosed in the 
great dislocation, proves its tectonic nature. The majority of the Japanese 
earthquakes, however, originate on that great slope of the sea-bottom 
which leads to the Tuscarora Deep. 

Around the supposed "fiery great circle," which surrounds the Pacific 
from Cape Horn to Bering Sea, thence down the eastern archipelago of 
Asia to the Dutch East Indies, are a considerable number of districts of 
high seismicity, separated by wide intervals of low seismicity. They are 
situated upon the most pronounced slopes leading from land to sea-bottom. 
Between Japan and Luzon, in each of which there is a fairly high seis- 
micity, there is no evidence of any exceptional degree of earthquake 
frequency. 

OPINION OF AN EXPERT. 

Major Clarence E. Dutton, U. S. A., who is one of the most esteemed 
authorities on seismology, places no belief in the "Circle of Fire." He 
says there is no such circle, although admitting the so-called circle is out- 
lined by many volcanoes and by many districts of marked seismicity. 
"There is," he states in his recent volume on "Earthquakes in the Light 
of New Seismology," "an inconsiderable amount of seismic action along 
the Kurile chain and the Kamchatka coast and along the western Aleutian 
chain. It appears to increase in the eastern Aleutians. We should expect 
to find along this island barrier of Bering Sea indications of volcanic 
rather than tectonib disturbances, for active volcanoes are numerous there. 
On the contrary, most of the well-defined quakes from that quarter are 
clearly of the tectonic class, and have been made known to us in their 
character of world-shakers by the records of horizontal pendulums in 
Canada, Europe, and even at their antipodes in South Africa. 

"In truth, the profound depths of the ocean just off the eastern part 
of the Aleutian chain is one of the great breeding grounds of world- 
shakers. A rather small basin in the ocean bottom has here a depth of 
nearly 4000 fathoms, and the descent to it is by a long and strong gradient. 
Between the Alaska-Aleutian field and the coast of California earthquakes 
are infrequent, but from Cape Mendocino southward the seismicity in- 
creases again." 
15— s. F. " 



226 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

According to the catalogue of recorded quakes in California from 
1769 to 1896, made by Prof. E. S. Holden, ten earthquakes of high 
intensity were felt in that State during the nineteenth centur\\ From 
1850 to 1886, 254 quakes in San Francisco are recorded. 

CALIFORNIA INDICATIONS. 

Of the California quakes. Major Dutton says they, as a class, suggest 
a tectonic origin. "High intensities are not common," he declares. "The 
lighter intensities are felt over considerable areas, which suggest great 
depth of focus. The seismographic traces show considerable length of 
period and well-marked separation between the short preliminary tremors 
and longer waves, which is indicative of considerable distance traveled 
by the vibrations between the centrum and the recording station. The 
deep foci, the long periods, the absence of small tremors, the considerable 
areas over which light vibrations are felt are indicative of tectonic rather 
than volcanic origin. 

"Proceeding southward along the Pacific Coa_st, no marked devel- 
opment of seismic activity appears until we reach southern Mexico, in 
the State of Colima. Occasional reports are made of quakes in the vicinity 
of the great volcano Colima. and the City of Mexico has been visited by 
a few shocks of moderate intensity, and by occasional light tremors. But 
the developments of seismic action are not great.^ In the State of Oaxaca, 
however, there is a sudden and great increase of seismicity. It occurs in 
a long and rather narrow belt, extending parallel to the coast, reaching 
into Guatemala and through the entire length of the Central American 
States to the Isthmus of Panama." 

The Central .American and South Mexican seismic regions indicate 
a volcanic origin. These regions are famous for their volcanoes, which 
are more numerous and closely adjacent than anywhere else in the world. 
Throughout the 1500 miles of volcanic coast line earthquakes have always 
been abundant and often highly destructive. In "j";! quakes of which 
records have been made, it was found that their epicenters occurred in 
close proximity to the volcanoes, and never more than four or five miles 
from them. It is a remarkalile fact that none of the notable quakes 
observed in this district suggests a tectonic origin. 



UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 227 

Following the coast line into South America, two seismic regions are 
encountered at Panama, both of them at a great distance. One is in 
Venezuela, far to the eastward ; the other in Ecuador, far to the southward. 
"Our knowledge of earthquakes in the Andes," continues Major Button, 
"is usually too insufficient in detail to enable us to form a very definite 
opinion as to their nature and class. Some of them originate in places 
which are not far distant from volcanoes, but whether near enough to 
create the presumption that they are really associated with them is not 
always known. On the otlier hand, many Andean quakes display the 
tectonic character so clearly that their origin is equally free from doubt. 

Both classes, however, are abundant. From a point about 250 miles 
north of Callao to beyond Valdivia, in Chile, the South American coast 
has been subject to earthquakes of the greatest energy'. Sometimes they 
have originated upon the sea-bottom. In these cases great sea waves have 
rolled in upon the coast, with disastrous effect. 

"The most notable of the several districts in South America," says 
Major Dutton, "whether they be regarded as interdependent or not, is 
the southern one, occupying the sea-bottom between the Island of San Juan 
Fernandez and the Chilean coast between latitude 26 and 39. This district 
is remarkable for the number of quakes of the highest order of magnitude 
which have originated there." 

Australia is little disturbed by earthquakes, but its neighbor, New 
Zealand, has been visited by 800 in forty-three years. The Dutch East 
Indies are, as is well known, a region of both volcanoes and earthquakes. 

ALONG THE ANDEAN SYSTEM. 

To refer to the Western Hemisphere again, it has been recognized by 
various geologists that the Windward and Leeward Islands of the West 
Indies are part of the continuation of a spur of the Andes. The seismic 
belt which begins in Venezuela continues along the reefs and basins into 
these islands. The descent of the Andean system is rapid to the coast of 
La Guayra, and thence to the depths of the Caribbean. Throughout the 
Windward and Leeward Islands the frequency of quakes is high, but 
the intensity is seldom great, .^.bout forty miles north of the Island of 
St. Thomas is the deepest abyss in the Atlantic. San Domingo, Jamaica, 



228 UNSHELTERED THOUSANDS IN PARKS 

the eastern part of Cuba and Porto Rico are frequently shaken, and their 
seismicity rnay be put, according to the authority quoted, into relation 
with the fact that the sea-bottom in the vicinity of those islands is one 
of the most rugged and highly diversified in its profiles of any part of 
the earth. 

Both the Homoeopathic Medical Society and the Philadelphia County 
Medical Society took steps toward raising funds for the relief of physicians 
who suffered in the San Francisco disaster. At the meeting of the former 
it was decided to send a letter to every practitioner of that school of medi- 
cine in the city, asking for contributions. The city was divided into dis- 
tricts and the members of the society canvassed them to collect the money. 

The Philadelphia County Medical Society passed resolutions in which 
the society itself contributed $200 from its treasury for the relief of physi- 
cians who were losers in the catastrophe. 

Other societies and organizations all over the country took similar 
action and there was what might be called a concerted movement to care for 
the immense army of sufferers whose desperate straits appealed to every 
charitable heart. 



CHAPTER XV. 

HARROWING INCIDENTS RELATED BY SURVIVORS. 

SLOWLY through the week there was unfolded the dreadful story of 
the earthquake, of the hard, merciless punishment of the innocent. 
The whole world sympathized with the thousands of unhappy men and 
women, the victims of the great power that liei> half chained beneath us. 

It is a giant of dreadful force, slumbering fitfully beneath the thin 
crust of earth upon which we live. Thousands of centuries ago the 
cooling of our earth's surface imprisoned in its center the great power that 
occasionally frightens us now. The slightest movement of this hidden 
giant, the slightest shaking of the vast force or shifting of the fiery, fluid 
heart of the earth, means instant death to the little creatures living at the 
danger point. 

No wonder the Chinese, from the traditions of centuries, have built 
up a belief in a huge dragon, the earth's dragon, that sleeps underground. 
To this day the Empress of China refuses permission to dig mines, and 
even to build railroads, for fear of irritating the earth's dragon. This 
superstition of an old nation is born of the rumbling, crashing and deaths 
that frightened the Chinese in earthquakes centuries ago. 

It seerps a very real and a very natural superstition to-day as we 
contemplate the havoc worked by a few seconds' agitation of the monster 
power sleeping beneath our feet. The human mind would strive in vain 
to form any estimate of the power of the blow that fell upon the beautiful 
city of San Francisco. It is totally beyond us to imagine what happens 
in nature, when there is a shifting of the solid formation of a globe of 
matter eight thousand miles in diameter. A mosquito on the bow of the 
greatest battleship is an elephant in size compared with a man on the 
earth's surface. When we think of the convulsions that pushed into the 
air the huge and splendid mountains of rock, crushing the "rock folds" 
together, raising continents from the sea's bottom, we can realize faintly 
how mild in comparison are the demonstrations of the tired monster 
to-day. 



230 HARROWING INCIDENTS 

But mild as they are. comparatively, mey have plunged a beautiful 
city and a brave people into sorrow and poverty. They till with alarm 
all the inhabitants of this land and of the world. They emphasize painfully 
our feebleness, our helplessness. And they emphasize marvelously our 
absolute dependence upon that cosmic balance which we so often forget, 
and to which we owe so much. 

In the midst of the national sorrow, universal anxiety, we should not 
forget the marvelous stability and precision that protect such tiny creatures 
as ourselves on this gigantic, whirling sphere. Our imagination should 
be stirred into fresh efforts, we should view with increased awe. with the 
most profound reverence, the extraordinary and glorious whole of which 
we are a dependent, humble, feeble part. As for those that dwell in the 
regions of devastation, no word can express the sympathy that is felt 
for them, nor the force of the blow that 'has fallen upon them. Utterly 
defenseless, utterly without preparation or warning, their homes, their 
hc)pes and plans, their beautiful city, was struck out of existence. 

"From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and 
down in it." Thus Satan answers, in the first chapter of the marvelous 
book of Job. when questioned as to his doings. 

COSTLY BUILDINGS LAID IN RUINS. 

And it would seem that the great ruler of Iniquity, in his eoine to 
and fro, laid a heavy foot upon our shore of the Pacific. Everywhere 
churches, houses, schools, hospitals and prisons were alike laid in ruin. 
Wherever there was property tires were blazing. Every dreadful curse 
seemed to have fallen upon human beings that deserved no such fate. 

All the demons that could torment the soul were at work. Thirst, 
fire, hunger, darkness, disease, terror and inevitable poverty. These are 
the curses that afflicted hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters 
in the West. Truly, the gates of death have been opened unto them, and 
they have "seen the doors of the Shadow' of Death." 

The wounds that can be healed will be healed. Thousands of Ameri- 
cans have gladly helped those upon whom the heavy sorrow fell. The 
government of States and of the nation co-operated with the brave men 
of California in meeting an affliction, the greatest in our history outside 



HARROWING INCIDENTS 231 

or war. But, unhappily, a great part of the suffering and of the loss is 
irreparable. The bodies that lay mangled, burned and crushed could not 
be revived. They were cut off. 

The labor, the effort and the ambition represented in one of the 
world's thriving, beautiful cities all went for naught. They were waste 
and loss. The brave, patient work of half a century was gone. The 
eft'orts, the lifetime work of tens of thousands of fathers and of mothers 
was swept away forever. Thousands upon thousands must begin the 
world again with naked hands, handicapped by age, by a blow as severe 
as it is undeserved. 

The people of the nation united in such a demonstration of sympathy, 
charity and helpfulness as proved our worthiness to compete with the 
great power of nature that we must subdue ultimately. Our human 
courage and charity should now prove that our characters are worthy 
the control of this great planet, a driving wheel that overawes us as it 
now supports us. but that one day will be subdued, obedient, a comfortable 
and safe home for thousands upon thousands of millions of truly civilized, 
educated and competent men. 

TRAGEDY AND COMEDY COMBINED. 

The tragedies and comedies of the San Francisco disaster were 
related in vivid language by Almes. Olives Fremstad and Josephine Jacoby, 
the first divas of the Metropolitan Opera Company to arrive in New York. 
While Mme. Fremstad saw the darker side of the tragic epic of San 
Francisco's ruin, Mme. Jacoby, while appreciating the tragedy, related the 
humors of her immediate experiences and those of the grat opera troup. 

"I am here at last, thank Heaven." said Mme. Jacoby. after under- 
going an experience so terrible and at times so humorous. I was awakened 
at 5.13 o'clock on Wednesday morning by being tossed out of my bed, 
on the third floor of the Palace Hotel. The bed was rocking to and fro, 
and the ceiling never seemed to stay in one place. The rocking of the 
hotel was accompanied by a terrible crunching noise, and I could hear the 
roar and crash of falling buildings. I ran out into the hallway in my 
nightgown and then barefooted into the street. Everywhere there was 
confusion, women screaming and men trying to reassure them. 



232 HARROWING INCIDENTS 

"And poor Caruso! He was simply dumb from fright. He came 
rushing to the street and sat as one dazed on a httie trunk. Other mem- 
bers of the company came out on the street, and then we all went back 
into the hotel again and were given coffee. Just as we were packing our 
trunks the telephones rang, and we again rushed from the hotel. I only 
had time to put on these slippers, which I wore in singing Carmen the 
night before, this suit, fur wrap and winter's hat ! 

"When we all got outside, Hertz began taking an inventory of our 
people. At about 9 o'clock somebody said, '\Miere's Fred Rullman ?' No 
one seemed to know, and after making vain inquiries, it was suggested 
that he might possibly be in his room. Hertz rushed up to the third 
floor and banged on Rullman's door. '\\'ho's there?' responded a voice. 

"'It's I, Hertz! Great Heaven, man. don't you know that here has 
been an earthquake, and that the town is burning up?' 

"Would you believe it. we had the greatest difficulty in waking up 
the only man who slept through that terrible earthquake? 

"Plancon appeared when we were warned to leave the hotel, attired 
in top hat, frock clothes and with his inevitable boutonniere. His sangfroid 
was marvelous. When we had all gathered together we rushed off toward 
Union Square, with the city ablaze around us. We saw huge rents in the 
earth, and I felt all the time as if the earth would open up and swallow us. 

"The last I saw of poor, speechless Caruso was when he was driven 
ofT on top of a loaded truck toward Golden Gate Park. You see, tb.e 
earthquake had a terrible effect on him. considering the fact that he had 
just promised to sing at a benefit for his beloved Naples, on account of 
the Vesuvius disaster. 

A NIGHT OF FEARFUL HORRORS. 

"And oh, that terrible night that followed! Weed, my maid and I 
caught snatches of sleep on a porch on the side of the hill, where we could 
see the red glare of the fire below us. That night Hertz, Goritz, Campanari, 
Plancon and a number of the women of the company drove up to the 
sand hills and slept here. The next morning the wagon in which Hertz 
had been sleeping had been moved to a place in the grounds of the Zoo, 
and he was awakened by the roaring of the lions and tigers. 



HARROWING INCIDENTS 233 

"And Nathan Franko ! The little man must be running yet. When 
last seen he was disappearing in the direction of the Rocky Mountains! 
I understand he is now on his way to New York. Mme. Homer had to 
leave the hotel so suddenly that she was forced to wear a suit of her hus- 
band's clothes. 

"Early Thursday morning our little party started for the Oakland 
ferry. The sun had arisen like a red-hot cannon ball. I shall never forget 
its color. It was a cardinal red, and across it floated yellow vapors. Down 
in the central district of the city the buildings lay either overthrown or 
with their steel frames alone remaining. The fire was sweeping over Nob 
Hill and residential districts. We finally found our way to the ferry and 
were pushed on mi overcrowded ferr}^boat and taken to Oakland, where 
we took the Overland Limited. At Chicago we went to the Auditorium, 
where we were made much of, as we were the first people who had 
arrived from the scene of the disaster." 

Mme. Fremstad said : 

"The scenes were so terrible that they baffle description. It was like 
Dante's Inferno. I was awakened by being pitched out of my bed, in 
the St. Dunstan Hotel, which was far removed from the original area 
of the first day's fire, but the earthquake shock was one that can never 
be forgotten. You asked me whom I saw in the hotel? I do not know. 
I remember rushing up to the third floor and taking out an invalid woman. 
We all sat out on the street then, waiting, waiting, as if the end of the 
world was at hand. At about noon I was fortunate enough to secure a 
wagon, and, with my trunks, I was taken to the ferry. 

ANTICS OF THE CHINAMEN. 

'On the way we passed through the Chinese quarter. We saw men 
with their blouses afire, their faces seared and blackened by flames, 
rushing from buildings that were toppling over. Others, with blood- 
stained faces, ran shrieking from their shattered dwellings. Women, with 
tlieir children clasped to their breasts, their white skin showing through 
the thin night dresses, ran before us and were swallowed up in the black 
smoke. The terrors grew as we progressed. I shall never get over it. 
I am ill from it now. 



234 HARKUWlNc. INCIDENTS 

"Hundreds of men and %Yomen were without anytliing but night- 
clothes. I saw a man in his underwear marcliing grimly ahead with a 
phonograph under his arm, a woman w-ith a cage of birds, others with 
parrots, dogs, children, bundles and otlier things they held dear. Sick 
and injured, stretched on mattresses, were dragged foot by foot. 

"Just after arriving at Oakland the second earthquake shock came. 
I was standing near a little colored boy, and I clutched him and cried, 
'Save me!' The lad looked at me and answered bravely, 'I would, missus, 
but I caint. Earthquakes caint be interfered with.' I saw a railroad 
train at the station and I asked the conductor where it was going. He 
told me to Ogden, and I got aboard. I lost my costumes, which were 
uninsured, but saved my jewels and personal effects." 

Pie and ginger beer formed the diet of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wark 
and their daughter, Eleanor, up to the time they were able to board a 
train for the East following the San Francisco earthquake. The Warks 
reached Philadelphia at 5 o'clock Tuesday morning, and told of their 
experiences, amusing as well as distressing, during their struggle to get 
out of the burning city. 

LAID IN A STOCK OF PROVISIONS. 

"When we ran from the Palace Hotel at the first moments of the 
terrible disaster and started to make our way to the higher ground, I 
had an eye to the future." said Mr. Wark. "I had a small leather grip 
with me and I stuffed it full of pies which I bought in a little restaurant. 
They were the onlv food in sight. Later I purchased several bottles of 
ginger beer, so while hundreds about us were suffering in the next twenty- 
four hours for want of food and drink, we had plenty of both. I never 
knew pie was so wholesome. 

"We arrived in San Francisco a week before the disaster," said Mr. 
Wark. "My object in going there was partly to establish a branch house. 
I started it all right, but the building and its contents are now a heap 
of ashes. We stayed at the Palace Hotel, our rooms being on the second 
floor. \\'hen we entered the hotel on the day of our arrival, I was struck 
bv its ma<mificence. Rising fifteen or sixteen stories Ux>m the pavement 
and covering a large part of a city block, with every luxurious appoint- 



HARROWING INCIDENTS 235 

inent known to the best modern hotels, it was a splendid structure. In 
the center was a beautiful open court, with fountains, singing birds and 
fragrant with the flowers for which California is noted. 

"At a quarter past 5 on Wednesday morning we were awakened by 
the first shock of the earthquake. The whole magnificent building was 
shaking just as a monkey would shake a parrot cage. A shower of 
plaster almost buried us in our beds. My wife and daughter stumbled 
down the stairs panic-stricken. They were in their night clothing, and 
I followed with but little more in the way of attire. After the shocks 
had passed I made my way back to our rooms, and hastily donning more 
clothing, took down, as near as I could estimate, complete apparel for the 
women. How well I succeeded may be judged from my daughter's 
remark that she reached home half-dressed. 

FRANTIC EFFORTS TO ESCAPE. 

"After buying the pies and the ginger beer, we picked our way 
through the streets amid the smoke from scores of fires, climbing over 
the debris which covered the ground. At 10 o'clock we reached a high 
hill at the southeastern part of the city and stayed there until 10 o'clock 
Wednesday night, when we were driven to the outskirts by the approach- 
ing flames. \\'e spent the night on a sand bank wrapped in two blankets, 
which I had managed to secure from a woman who seemed to have saved 
blankets and nothing else from her home. Thursday morning we walked 
by a circuitous route to the water front and proceeded northward to 
the Market Street ferry, and were among the first to get out of San 
Francisco." 

This was the third devastating fire which Mr. Wark had passed 
through. He lived in Portland. Me., at the time of its destmction in 
1S66, and was in Boston in 1S72 when that city was almost wiped out 
by a conflagration. 

That three men were shot to death on a blazing roof in San Fran- 
cisco to keep them from being burned alive is solemnly asserted by T^Iax 
l^'ast, a garment worker, who arrived at Salt Lake City. 

"When the fire caught the \\'indsor Hotel, at Fifth and Market." 
said Mr. Fast, "there were three men on the roof, and it was impossible 



236 HARROWING INCIDENTS 

to get them down. Rather than see the crazed men fall In with the roof 
and be roasted alive the military officer directed his men to shoot them, 
which they did in the presence of 5000 people. I saw great stones fall 
on three men near the City Hall, crushing the life out of them. 

"In Union Square I stood beside a woman who died actually from 
fright and thirst. Her last request was for water, and we had none to 
give her. At Jefferson Square I saw a fatal clash between the military 
and the police. A policeman ordered a soldier to take up a dead body 
to put it in the wagon and the soldier ordered the policeman to do it. 
Words followed, and the soldier shot the policeman dead." 

John Cashnear, an old soldier from Spear Fish, S. D., saw the 
military shoot a negro near the City Hall. The negro had been robbing 
the corpse of a woman, and to get a ring from her swollen finger cut the 
finger off. 

"The sentry on duty near Van Ness Avenue," added Mr. Cashnear, 
"ordered a friend of mine who was entering his home to come out of 
there, as it was about to be dynamited. My friend waved his hai:4 back 
toward the soldier, saying. 'This is my house and I have a right to go 
in.' The soldier instantly killed him. 

"On the other hand, I want to say that the soldiers were generally 
kind and helpful, and deplored these hasty actions of their companions 
just as much as we did." 

AGNEWS ASYLUM DISASTER. 

Nothing could be more terrible than the calamity at Agnews Asylum, 
near San Jose, as described by R. L. Drinkwater, of Denver. He fled 
to San Jose from San Francisco, only to find that he had gone from bad 
to worse. He said: 

"We went to Agnews, where we had a friend, and found the asylum 
in ruins and 200 demented creatures buried there. It was a sight to 
transfix one with horror to see scores of mad men and women strapped to 
trees all over the grounds, crying, shrieking and cursing. Ordinarily 
troublesome in their way, the excitement of the falling building made them 
mad indeed, and their uncanny looks and fiery eyes were terrible to 
behold. Nothing could be done for them, as there was no place to put 



HARROWING INCIDENTS 23! 

them, and every sane man, woman and child available was digging to 
release the other unfortunates buried in the ruins. 

"Oh, such cries as came seemingly from the bowels of the earth! 
The devils have got me; let me out!' 'I am the king; you cannot kill me!' 
'I want my supper. I want my dinner!' Just as the vagary seized them 
they called out their disordered thoughts before they even guessed their 
true condition." 

r 

GHASTLY TALE OF GHOULS. 

But most ghastly of all is the statement by Willis Ames, a Salt Lake 
man, who escaped to Los Angeles. He said : 

"While I was walking about the streets I saw man after man shot 
down by the troops. Most of these were ghouls. One man made the 
trooper believe that one of the dead bodies lying on a pile of rocks was 
his mother, and he was permitted to go up to the body. Apparently 
overcome by grief, he threw himself across the corpse. In another 
instant the soldiers discovered that he was chewing the diamond earrings 
from the ears of the dead woman. 

" 'Here is where you get what is coming to you,' said one of the 
soldiers, and with that he put a bullet through the ghoul. The diamonds 
were foimd in the man's mouth afterward." 

Already the beggars were seeking to profit by the misfortunes of San 
Francisco, and two men arrested while begging in the character of refugees 
were proved impostors. 

[The "soldiers" referred to were undoubtedly militiamen. All reports 
concurred in the statement that they were reckless, while the United States 
troops seemed at no time to have failed in discretion or good conduct.] 

Following the rain which fell Sunday night and Monday morning, 
which greatly intensified the misery and suffering of the homeless. Tuesday 
night w^as one of comparative comfort and of greatly improved conditions. 

The night was clear, warm and balmy, and there was less suffering 
among the thousands of refugees camping under the blue canopy than at 
any time since the day of the terrible disaster. 

Tuesday afternoon wagon loads of quilts and blankets were dis- 
tributed among those who had suffered intensely from the cold and ex- 



JJ8S HARROWING INCIDENTS 

posure while sleeping in the open. Other wagons loaded with tents 
wended tlieir way through the crowded parks and replaced many impro- 
vised shelters, which had afforded little or no protection against the rain 
and chill winds. As a result, there were but few complaints of suffering. 
While the heavy rain for the time being added much to the misery of the 
homeless, it did much toward improving sanitary' conditions throughout 
the city. 

At 10.40 Monday night an earthquake shock was felt throughout the 
cit}', and momentarily created some alarm among the people, still unner^'ed 
and overwrought from their recent experience. Xo damage was caused, 
but in some instances persons living in houses ran out badly frightened 
and called upon the sentries and guards to help carry out clothing and other 
effects. The soldiers assured them that there was no danger. This new 
shock stimulated the exodus of refugees, many leaving for Oakland and 
other California towns. 

DYNAMITING THE RUIN. 

The general conditions in the city were improving rapidly. Hundreds 
of men were placed at work clearing the streets, and the dynamiting of 
the tottering walls which were left standing by the fire and endangered 
life was continued. The Spring Valley \\^ater Company had about 1000 
men at work repairing and replacing broken water mains, and many 
portions of the residence section were abundantly supplied with water. 

Xo trace of Count de la Rocca. the French Consul, had yet been 
found. It was feared that he had lost his life in the fire. Many merchants 
were making arrangements for clearing the ruins of their buildings as 
rapidly as m.en could be secured, preparatory to commencing building 
operations. The situation was constantly growing more cheerful. 

Eighty men of the Beneficial Sigiial Corps arrived and were at work 
restoring the Government telephone and telegraph communications. The 
Home Telephone Company, which had been given a franchise, soon began 
work on its telephone system. The distribution of supplies continued in 
an orderly manner, and there was no shortage of food. 

''Say to the people of California, of the United States and of the 
world that there is no epidemic in San Francisco atu^ \\o dang'ef of one, 



HARROWINC. INCIOEN'I'S 289 

If we were not absolutely free from contagious diseases, we at least have 
fewer cases than we have under the circumstances any rig"ht to expect. 
Indeed, we have at this moment fewer cases of such disease than we had a 
month ago. and there is nothing in the present condition of atYairs that 
would lead us as medical men to fear an outbreak. The sanitation of the 
city is absolutely under control." 

This statement was made by Dr. J. W. \\'ard. chairman of the 
Health Com.mittee. Tuesday morning. 

Three hundred plumbers, under the direction of the Board of Health, 
were at work in all sections of the city. Thev were contining their etTorts 
solely to sewers and water pipes. The broken mains in the business dis- 
tricts were being- repaired and the outlets closed. In the unburned residence 
section the sewers were being tlushed and cleaned, and water pipes set 
in order as fast as possible. 

RAILROAD TO HELP CLEAR TOWN. 

As a welcome relief to the otlicials and citi.^ens of San Francisco 
who looked upon the ruins of the city and ui>on the monstrous piles of 
bricks and stone and twisted iron that were once their homes and places of 
business, was the announcement that the Southern Pacitic Railwav would 
aid in the work of tearitig away the debris. The raihvad otticials were 
ready to build a track through the heart of the devastated eity from 
Harrison Street to. the bay, and to run their tlat cars in for the wreckage 
that must be removed before new buildings could arise and normal condi- 
tions be restored. In this great work it was announced that between 3000 
and 4000 men would be employed. The railroads would carrv the debris 
wherever the authorities wanted it taken, and by so doing would inake 
possible the performance of the enormous task that had been terrifving to 
those who looked forward to it with the knowledge that it must be done, 
however tremendous. 

E. H. Harriman. president of the Southern Pacific Company, was 
in San Francisco to inaugurate the work and to see that it was faithfully 
performed, if the suggestion of the railroad men met with favor at the 
hands of the city ofliicials. At the meeting of bankers Mr. Harriman said 
that he would do all in his power and work with e\ery resource at his 



240 HARROWING INCIDENTS 

command for the rebuilding of San Francisco and the preservation of the 
city's good name. His remarks to the bankers bolstered their hopes and 
gave them new courage by contradicting, as it were, the rumors for several 
days prevalent that the railroad offices and interests would all be perma- 
nently removed to Oakland. 

Temporary structures were erected in Golden Gate Park for the 
housing of 40,000 persons. This work was commenced Tuesday morning 
by the Shelter Committee, and the homeless, who had been sleeping out 
of doors for nearly a week, were moved into comfortable quarters. About 
the same time a supply of blankets and bedding was received, and these 
were taken to the park. At the same time the committee was sending as 
many of the refugees as possible to interior points. 

The seizure of all vacant houses in the unburned district was still 
under way. Many vacant flats were taken, and the homeless were housed 
and the sick found good accommodations. A committee of architects 
was sent out to examine churches and other buildings, including school- 
houses, with a view of turning them into living rooms for the homeless. 

FOOD COMING IN FAST. 

Supplies of food were coming in rapidly from outside points, and 
were being centralized in the freight sheds and warehouses still standing. 
A corps of shipping clerks was placed in charge of these depots, and every 
ounce of food was checked. With the assistance of Michael Casey, presi- 
dent of the Teamsters' Union, the Food Committee succeeded in system- 
atizing the distribution. They took possession of all the large trucks and 
teams, which were utilized in hauling supplies to the forty odd subdepots 
throughout the city. This placed the transportation facilities in excellent 
shape, and made it possible to deliver supplies as quickly as they came. 

The city was laid of¥ in districts covering areas of four blocks. The 
subcommittees in these districts regulated the supply of food furnished 
to the families living within their boundaries. In the confusion attending 
the earlier distributions food was given out in lavish quantities in many 
instances, and the committees were to see that the proper economy was 
observed. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

North American Volcanoes. — Famous Mount Shasta.— 
Northern Arizona. — Volcanic Glass. — Craters on the 
Pacific Coast. 

A ZONE of mountains extends along the whole western flank of 
''*• the American continent, from the northern to the southern 
extremity. This, from Alaska to Terra del Fuego, is associated 
with volcanoes, though the vents are only locally active, and in 
the majority of cases the craters are either ruinous or have disap- 
peared. In the extreme north, a volcanic belt extends from the 
head of Cook's Inlet on the east through Alaska and over the 
Aleutian Isles towards the district already described. The higher 
mountains, however, so far as is at present known, are not volcanic 
— Mount St. Elias, about 18,000 feet, certainly is not. 

The same is probably true of its yet more lofty neighbor, 
Mount Logan, and the other summits near the frontier of British 
and United States territory ; the Alaska coast also, which forms a 
fringe to this region, seems to be free from volcanoes, and the same 
is true of South-eastern Alaska and its islands, with the exception 
of Mount Edgecumbe, an insular volcano which is reported to be 
a basaltic crater about 2855 feet high, and to have been active in 
1796. Eruptions are said to have occurred from Mount Calder 
aud other summits. on Prince of Wales Island at a slightly earlier 
date ; but these, as Professor I. C. Russell informs us, are as yet 
very imperfectly known. 

The most conspicuous and best-marked belt begins at Cook's 
Inlet on the east, and extends through the Alaskan promontory 
to the Aleutian Islands. It is about a thousand miles long, but 
generally less than forty miles broad. In fact, every volcano in 
it which is known to have been active in historic times can be 
included between two lines on the map of Alaska, twenty-five miles 
apart, Ciaters in good preservation are numerous, and active 

vents not few, one of which has been alreadynoticed. They occur 
16-S. F. 241 



242 NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES 

either close to the sea ou the southern border of the mainland or on 
islands. 

To this statement as to the geographical distribution one 
exception is known ; some small cones, also of basalt, occur near 
St. Michael on the coast of Behring Sea, about seventy miles north 
of the mouth of the Yukon River ; but there may be others, for 
at present not much of Alaska has been carefully investigated by 
qualified observers. On Copper River, some two hundred miles to 
the northeast of Cook's Inlet, and thus apparently insulated from 
the Aleutian belt, rises Mount Wrangel, a lofty volcano, which was 
in eruption in 1819 and is still steaming, and others of the neigh- 
boring mountains may have the same origin. 

On the western shore also of this inlet are two fine volcanic 
peaks, Redoute and Iliamna, reported to be about 1 1,000 and 12,000 
feet high. The latter is generally steaming, and a few years ago 
discharged such a quantity of dust and lapilli that the forests were 
killed over hundreds of square miles on the adjacent lowlands. 

VOLCANOES OF ALASKA. 

From this district to Central America no active vents exist, 
though they were once plentiful. In the Canadian territory to the 
south and east of United States Alaska very little is at present 
known of its volcanic history. There are lava sheets about the 
Fraser River of enormous extent, but Dr. G. M. Dawson did not 
discover here any distinct traces of craters, so that very probably 
this portion of the American continent may be compared with the 
northern side of the Atlantic basin, where discharges anciently 
occurred from Antrim at least as far as Iceland, but now continue 
only in the latter region. 

The Columbia lavas, vast sheets of basalt, have been already 
mentioned ; but here, as in the Fraser River district, cinder cones 
and craters are wanting, and the eruptions probably date from about 
the middle of the Tertiary era. They lie to the east of the Cascade 
Mountains, in which volcanoes have certainly existed, but whether 
any retain their craters does not seem to be as yet ascertained. 
There is a tradition that Mount Baker, a fine peak to the west of 



NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 243 

the main chain and in the northern part of the district (near 
Puget Sonnd), broke out in 1843, but on this point Professor 
Russell is doubtful. 

Mount Rainier, however, a superb peak, not only from its 
elevation, 14,525 feet, but also because it rises practically from 
sea-level, still emits some steam. The highest part is a cone built 
up within the shattered ring of a much older crater, and the ma- 
terials appear to be basaltic. Mount St. Helens (9,750 feet), also 
detached from the main mass, is said to have been in eruption in 
1841-42, and fumaroles still exist on the slopes. Moiint Adams 
(9,570 feet), farther south and rather east of the main range, 
apparently retains a crater. 

On the crest of the Cascade Mountains, in Northwestern 
Oregon, Mount Hood rises to a height of 11,225 ^^^^y ^^^ i^ noted 
for the beauty of its outline. Portions only of the wall of its summit 
crater now remain, but there are still fumaroles at considerable 
elevations on the northeast and the south sides. Mount Jeffer- 
son (10,200 feet) and the Three Sisters, a little farther south, in 
the Cascade range, are the sites of ancient volcanoes ; but their 
craters apparently have perished, and to the south of these come 
others of less elevation, which for the most part retain craters 
either at their summits or on their flanks, the most important of 
them being Grater Lake or Mount Mazama, which has been 
already described. 

SUMMIT CRATER OF SHASTA. 

Yet farther south comes the noted mass of Mount Shasta, 
rising to a height of 14,350 feet. The summit crater is ruinous, 
and the slopes are scarred with ravines ; but lava streams have 
flowed down its flank since the Glacial epoch, and a distinct sub- 
sidiary crater remains on a lower summit called Shastina. Far- 
ther south comes a volcanic district named Lassen's Peak from 
its principal summit, which rises to an elevation of 10,437 ^^^^• 
This is crossed from northwest to southeast by a belt of volcanic 
cones about fifty miles long by twenty-five miles wide ; one of 
thfita, Cinder Cone by name, being remarkably well preserved. 



544 NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

The crater, as illustrated by Professor Russell, is a double 
Dne, and there ^vere two distinct periods of eruption. In the ear- 
lier a quantity of ash was ejected and the cinder cone itself was 
formed. Then there was a pause long enough to allow ten feet 
of diatomaceous earth to accumulate on the bed of an adjacent 
lake, and after that came the quiet effusion of a large sheet of 
lava. 

East of the Sierra Nevada, on the area once occupied by a 
great sheet of water now spoken of as Lake Lahontan, are two 
ancient craters filled with alkaline water. The greater, which 
has an area of about 268 acres, only rises some eighty feet above 
the level of the surrounding country, so that it resembles, though 
on a larger scale, such a crater as the Pulvermaar in the Eifel. 
Geological evidence shows that these w^ere active during the 
existence of Lake Lahontan, and that before they ceased it had 
already begun to dry up. 

POURING OUT LAVA STREAMS. 

In the Mono valley, also east of the Sierra Nevada, but farther 
south, and near to the lake of the same name, are a number of 
craters, some not much elevated above the surrounding country, 
but others rising to over 2000 feet, with lava streams and fuma- 
roles. The materials apparently consist of basalts and varieties 
of andesite ; but the Mono craters, as the line of higher cones is 
called, have ejected rhyolite and even obsidian. Professor Rus- 
sell remarks that those cones (some of which have lost their cra- 
ters), though forming an isolated group, are really a portion of a 
much more extended series of recent eruptions, which follow the 
general course of the great belt of branching faults by which the 
eastern face of the Sierra Nevada has been determined. 

The fact that, as a rule, the central cones are the less per- 
fectly preserved and are the older, shows that '' the volcanic energy 
early in the history of the range evidently found an avenue of 
escape where [they] now stand, and when the conduits of these 
craters became clogged newer craters were formed, both to the 
north and south, along the same line or belt of fracture." 



NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 245 

To the west of the WalisatcH Mountains, in the inlana oasin 
of Utah, and ou the area once occupied by the great sheet of 
water designated Lake Bonneville, are the Ice Spring Craters, a 
group of low craters, three of which are very well defined, though 
they are breached by streams of basaltic lava, which covers an 
area of over twelve square miles. Other craters occur in the dis- 
trict, some being older and some newer than Lake Bonneville, 
while others were active during its existence. 

In northern Arizona the San Francisco Mountains are vol- 
canic. The higher summits, which rise to a mean elevation of 
12,562 feet above the sea and about 5700 above the general level of 
the surrounding table-land, consists largely of trachytic lavas and 
have lost their craters ; but around them are numerous small 
craters of basaltic scoria, which often are well preserved and are 
associated with flows of the same rock. Some of these have been 
breached by the lava, which has welled up in their interior and 
has escaped exactly as was described by Scrope in his book on 
The Volcanoes of Central France. In one, however, a lake is 

r.heltered. 

FAR-FAMED YELLOWSTONE PARK. 

Just east of the crest of the Rocky Monutains, and in the north- 
west corner of the State of Wyoming, is the far-famed volcanic 
district of the Yellowstone Park and its neighborhood. Craters 
apparently are not common in this region, but the great flows of 
obsidian attracted much attention from geologists. This volcanic 
glass is associated with pumice, the rocks generally being trachytes, 
usually rich in silica. The vents are now extinct, unless a mud 
volcano be regarded as an exception ; but the hot springs and 
geysers to which the Park owes its world-wide fame show that a 
high temperature still prevails, probably at no great depth below 
the surface. 

The vast flows of basalt in the valleys draining to the Snake 
River in Idaho, to which reference has already been made, are on 
the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, but at no very 
great distance from the Yellowstone Park. Also east of 
the Rocky Mountains, in the State of Colorado, are several 



246 NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

very large cones and flows of basalt, wliile to the soutli of 
pucho the bold summits of the Spanish Peaks, which rise 
respectively to heights of 12,720 and 13,620 feet above the sea, are 
ancient volcanoes ; but in all these the craters seem to have been 
destroyed. The materials are described as trachytes, some varie- 
iies approaching rhyolite. 

Farther south, however, in the State of New Mexico, arc 
several extinct volcanoes, some of which retain their craters in 
good preservation. The materials, so far as described, are basalt. 
Mount Taylor (11,390 feet) also is the centre of a volcanic district. 
Its crater has perished, but these remain on some of the smaller 
neighboring cones. The rock apparentl}^ is basalt. 

The long peninsula of Lower California may be regarded as 
a prolongation of the chain of the Sierra Nevada. It also con- 
tains many extinct volcanoes, which, however, are at present but 
imperfectly known. Towards the north, according to Professor 
Russell, Mount Santa Catalina rises to a height of some io,cuo 
feet, and about the middle is a group of volcanic peaks known as 
the Tres A'irgines, the highest of which is said to be 7250 feet. 
In this group an eruption occurred in 1857, and since then 
steam has been ejected, sometimes in great quantity. 

THREE MOUNTAIN CHAINS. 

Those described above, as Professor Russell remarks, are 
only some of the most striking instances among the hundreds of 
lava-flows and craters within the United States ; but it will be 
noticed that the great majority are associated with the second one 
of the three mountain chains which form the western flank of the 
North American continent, the huge eastern mass of the Rocky 
Mountains being almost entirel}-, and the smaller western one of 
the Coast Range being wholly, free from volcanoes of recent date. 
The Sierra Madre in Mexico, which may be regarded as a pro- 
longation of the Rocky Mountains, appears to exhibit no signs of 
volcanic action. 

Thus a very considerable space separates the volcanoes of the 
pftr^ if Mexico which l^ea south of the tropic of Cancer, a region 



NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 247 

of great activity even in the present day, from those of which we 
have been speaking. The former also appear not to lie, as nsnal, 
along a belt parallel with the western coast, bnt to be rather 
irregularly distribnted over one, about 150 miles in breadth, which 
extends from sea to sea in a general direction from W. N. W. to 
K. N. E. for not much less than 600 miles- 

All the volanoes in Mexico which are still active (ten in 
number according to Reclus) lie south of latitude 22°. The most 
northerly of them is Ceboruco (about 7140 feet) on the Pacific 
coast, the centre of a group of ciaters, which was in eruption in 
1870, and has continued steaming ever since. Farther south, 
near the same coast, is Colima, which has frequently been active. 
In 1885, the dust from it was carried to the northeast for a dis- 
tance of 280 miles. 

A CELEBRATED VOLCANO. 

Proceeding eastwards, and slightly to the south, wc come to 
Jorullo, the eruption of which, ever since the days of Humboldt, has 
figured so largely in geological text books. This for many years was 
quoted as an example which very strongly supported the elevation 
theory of volcanic cones. It was asserted that here a tract of land 
from three to four miles in extent had almost suddenly swelled up 
like a bladder, while cones were built b}?- discharges from its surface 
and at its sides. This happened on the night of September 29, 1759; 
but, as has been frequently shown, the evidence for this remark- 
able phenomenon is quite untrustworthy. 

Proceeding east, the volcanoes became more loft}'. Xinantecatl, 
some forty miles southwest of the city of Mexico, crowned by two 
crater-lakes, rises to about 15,000 feet; but east of that city are 
two giants, Ixtacihuatl to the north, and Popocatepetl to the south. 
The former, which, however, has lost its crater, is hardly less, per- 
haps more, than 16,500 feet ; but Popocatepetl is about 1200 feet 
more than this, and terminates in a crater from which a little 
steam issues. The lower part of the mountain consists of basalt, 
but the great cone is mostl}^ composed of andesite and its summit 
is described as trach3'te. 



248 NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

Yet farther to the east come Cofre de Perote and Orizaba, 
which also lie on a north and sonth line ; the former, which is 
composed of hornblende andesite, has lost its crater and is only 
13,552 feet high ; bnt its companion is the highest volcanic sum- 
mit on the northern continent. The exact measurement is 
iincertain, but it cannot be much, if at all, less than 18,000 feet. 
On the summit are three craters in good preservation, and the 
flanks of the mountain are studded with small cones. Its last 
eruption is said to have occurred in the eighteenth century. 

Finally, on the eastern coast is Tuxtla, reported to be a little 
less than 5000 feet high, which is active from time to time. A 
terrible eruption occurred, after a pause of nearly one hundred 
and twenty years, in March, 1793. A series of violent explosions 
considerabl}?- reduced the height of the mountain and scattered 
ashes over a large area. The fine dust was borne by the wind 
about 150 miles to the northwest, and the same distance to the 
southwest. This fact suggests that, as happened to a less extent 
in an eruption of Cotopaxi, part of the dust was shot up into a 
region where an upper stratum of air was moving in a different 
direction from the lower one. 

EXPLOSION AFTER LONG REPOSE. 

Still in Mexico, but considerabl}^ to the south of the belt 
described above, and on the shore of the Pacific, is Chacahua, an 
extinct crater, while to the east of it is Pochutla, a volcano which, 
after a very long period of repose, exploded in 1870. 

From Guatemala to Costa Rica is a zone marked b}?- great 
volcanic activity, which follows the line of the Pacific coast. Some 
of the cones on this rise to elevations considerably above 10,000 
feet, but the majorit}' do not exceed 8000 In Guatemala, accord- 
ing to a list given by Professor Russell, there are two active 
volcanoes, four quiescent, and fifteen extinct. Among the last- 
named is Tajamulco, which lays claim, though probably without 
warrant, to an altitude of 18,317 feet. 

In San Salvador five are active, three quiescent, and the same 
number extinct. Honduras, which lies chiefl}' to the east of 



NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 249 

tlie mountain axis, is without an active volcano, but lias two 
quiescent and three extinct. Nicaragua contains four active, eight 
quiescent, five extinct, while in Costa Rica one only can be called 
active, and its last eruption was as long ago as 1726, while two are 
quiescent and six extinct. Lastly, at the northern part of the 
Isthmus of Panama are three mountains of volcanic origin, two 
of them over 11,000 feet high, but it is doubtful whether any one 
retains a remnant of a crater. 

Three of the volcanoes in the above-named list are especially 
interesting, because, like Monte Nuovo, the history of their actual 
birth is recorded. Two of these are in San Salvador, the third in 
Nicaragua, Of the former, Izalco, now rising about 3000 feet 
above the surrounding country and 5000 feet above the sea-level, 
began to be formed in the year 1770. It covers what previously 
was a fine cattle farm. "The occupants on this estate were 
alarmed by subterranean noises and shocks of earthquakes about 
the end of 1769, which continued to increase in loudness and 
strength until the twenty-third of the February following, when the 
earth opened about half a mile from the dwellings on the estate, 
sending out lava, accompanied by fire and smoke." 

HOVV' THE CONE WAS BUILT UP. 

The eruption thus begun went on continuously, lava some- 
times being ejected, but at others only ashes and volcanic bombs, 
and thus the cone has been built up to its present height. No 
lava has been discharged for many years, but ashes and dust, 
mingled with steam, are constantly ejected. There are three 
craters, the central one being the largest and most active. Acid 
vapors also are emitted from fumaroles. Lake Ilopango, which 
possibly occupies an ancient crater, also in San Salvador, wit- 
nessed the beginning of a volcano as lately as the year 1880. 

A violent earthquake in 1879 was accompanied by a rising of 
steam from the lake, and was followed by a steady fall in the level 
of its waters, amounting to about thirty-five feet. Then, during 
the night of January 20, 1880, the surface of the lake was again 
agitated, and the next morning a pile of rocks was observed in 



aiO NORTH AMERICAN VOCLANOES. 

the centre, from which rose a column of vapor. The eruption 
lasted for more than a month, sulphurous vapors were emitted 
copiously, the fish in the lake were killed, and a cone was ulti' 
mately formed about i6o feet above the water, but rising from a 
depth of some 600 feet. 

A new volcano broke out on April 11, 1850, in Nicaragua, in 
a district called the Plain of Leon. This is studded with cones, 
of which one at least is active. The commencement of the erup- 
tion was not carefully observed, but the outbreak occurred near 
the base of an extinct crater called Las Pilas. It began with a 
copious discharge of lava. 

This ceased on the fourteenth of the month, and w^as suc- 
ceeded by a different phase of action, namely, a series of paroxysms 
lasting about three minutes, with intervals of about the same 
length. By these, steam, ashes, and red-hot bombs were shot up 
to a height of several hundred feet, accompanied, it is said, by 
outbursts of flame. Thus in the course of a week a cone was 
built up to a height of from a hundred and fifty to two hundred 
feet, after which the action became much more intermittent. 

THREE SOUTH AMERICAN PEAKS. 

Among the older summits of Central America it may suffice 
to mention three, all of which are lofty mountains. Volcan de 
Agua, 12,213 feet, at the time of the Spanish invasion was a 
crater-lake. In the ^'•ear 1541, after an earthquake, the wall of 
the crater gave way on the northeastern side and the water 
escaped, doing great damage as it rushed down the slope of the 
mountain. Fuego, to the east, with its group of three volcanic 
cones, the highest of which attains to 13,943 feet, was often active 
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and probably for some 
long time previousl}^ ; but since then eruptions have been less 
frequent, though one occurred as late as i860, and steam still 
issiies from the crater. 

But the most noted of all is Coseguina, for it was the scene 
of a frightful eruption in the year 1835. So far as is known, this, 
like the famous awakening of Vesuvius in the year 79, put an 



NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 2rA 

end to a long period of complete repose. It began on tne morn- 
ing of January aotli, when several loud detonations were heard, 
followed by the ejection of a cloud of inky smoke, through which 
*' darted tongues of flame resembling lightning." The cloud 
spread gradually outward, obscuring the sun, while fine dust fell 
from it like rain. This went on for two days, the sand falling 
more and more thickly and the explosions becoming louder and 
louder. 

On the third day they reached a maximum and the darkness 
became intense. The quantity of material that fell was so great 
that for leagues around people actually deserted their houses, 
fearing lest their roofs might be crushed in. At Leon, more than 
a hundred miles away, the dust lay several inches deep, and it was 
carried to Jamaica, Vera Cruz and Santa Fe de Bogota, over an 
area of 1500 miles in diameter. The sea also was covered with 
floating masses of pumice for a distance of some fifty leagues. 

FOUR MILES IN DIAMETER. 

During the eruption the height of the cone was considerably 
reduced, but to what extent is not certainly known ; probably by 
at least one half, for it is now a crater four miles in diameter and 
only 3600 feet above the sea. Many of the phenomena during 
this outbreak closely agree with those associated with the first 
eruption of Vesuvius and that of Krakatoa already described. 

The Isthmus of Panama, though its hills in places are com- 
paratively low and without volcanic cones, links together the great 
mountain chains of North and South America. But that of the 
Andes, which extends along the whole western flank of the latter, 
is rather less complicated in structure than the system of the 
former country. It is a single chain, consisting partly of sedi- 
mentary, partly of igneous rocks, old and new, both crystalline 
and volcanic. The sedimentaries and the older igneous form the 
lower part of the great mountain wall, and the volcanoes, gene- 
rally speaking, rise more nearly from its crest than from its 
flanks. 

They are not, however, continuous along the whole chain, but 



252 NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

form three principal groups — those of Colombia and Ecuador in 
the north, those of Bolivia in the centre, and those of Chili in the 
south. About sixty craters are still active ; those which are 
extinct and more or less ruined ma}^ be counted by hundreds. 
The first group, in the more northern part, consists of three prin- 
cipal ranges, of which the eastern one branches out at last into 
the great mountains which runs roughly parallel with the border 
of the Caribbean Sea. 

The western range is less elevated than the others, at any 
rate in its more northern part ; the central, on which the volcanoes 
are chiefly situated, supports many lofty peaks. Of these Mesa 
de Herveo, 18,340 feet, retains its ancient crater ; Ruiz, 17,189 
feet ; Tolima, 18,392 feet ; and Huila, 18,701, all show some signs 
of life. An eruption occurred at Purace, 15,425 feet, in 1849, 
when the torrents of mud caused by the rapid melting of the snow 
caused much devastation. Extinct volcanoes are also frequent. 
In the eastern chain no vents are mentioned as active. 

FIERY SUMMITS OF ECUADOR. 

Passing into Ecuador, the volcanic summits, according to Mr. 
Whymper, are grouped along two roughly parallel lines. On the 
western, Cotocachi, Pichincha, Corazon, Illiniza, Carihuairazo, 
and Chimborazo are the most important ; on the eastern, Cayambe, 
Antisana, Sincholagua, Cotopaxi, Altar, and Sangai. Of these 
the majorit}^ have lost their craters, including Chimborazo. Altar 
retains one, so does Pichincha, which apparently is hardly extinct, 
while Sangai and Cotopaxi, which has been already described, are 
still active. 

It may suffice to say that the specimens brought back by Mr. 
Whymper were almost without exception varieties of andesite, 
several of them containing hypersthene. Antisana, however, 
also furnished a pitchstone. The volcanic cones, according to 
Re:ss and Wolf, continue for some distance to the south of those 
which have been mentioned. 

In the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes we find the second 
linear group of craters. The same arrangement in parallel lines 



NORTH AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 258 

to continue, and tlie highest summit, Hauscan, is said to overtop 

Chimborazo by rather more than 1300 feet. Volcanic cones are 

most frequent in the southern part of the western range, where 

they set in again some 1200 miles from those of Ecuador. Few, 

however, are mentioned as active in historic times ; among them 

Ubinas, Ornate, Candarave (18,964 feet), are enumerated by 

Reclus. But among the extinct volcanoes some also rise to great 

heights, such as Sara-Sara, Achatayhua, Coro Puna, Ampato, 

Misti, and Chachani, all of which exceed 13,000 feet, the last 

reaching 19,767 feet and Misti 18,504 feet. 

This volcanic group continues into Bolivia, and there are 

some active craters, especially near Lake Titicaca. Presumably 

the higher peaks of this country, five of which are enumerated as 

over 21,000 feet, and the highest, Illimani, reaching 22,350 feet, 

are volcanic, and the last is said to smoke constantly. Altogether, 

sixteen craters are asserted to be active in this second group of 

Andres volcanoes, of which, at present, our knowledge is rather 

imperfect. 

LONG CEASED TO BE ACTIVE. 

Passing on to the third group, the volcanoes of Chili, we find 
these numerous, though, for the most part, they have long ceased 
to be active. In the northern part, however, two at least, Llullai- 
laco (17,061 feet) and Dona Inez are still at work. In the middle 
are the highest summits — Aconagua, 22,867 feet ; Cerro del 
Mercedario, 22,302 feet; Tupungato, 10,269 feet; San Jose, 
20,000 feet ; and Maipo, 17,657 feet. Of these, Aconagua has 
entirely lost its crater, and Tupungato retains due distinctive trace 
of it, but one or two vents are still active; one about 13,000 feet 
high, lying some twenty miles to the southwest of Tupungato. 
In this part also, according to Mr. FitzGerald, the Andes consist 
of two ranges, of which the western is the watershed ; the other 
supports the highest peaks. There is also a third and eastern 
range, but this is separated from the main chain by a valley only 
about 4000 feet above sea level. 

The rocks brought back by Messrs. FitzGerald and Vines are 
mostly andesites, the actual summits of Aconagua and Tupun- 



254 NORTH AMERICAN VuLCANOi:s 

gato beiug the hornblende-bearing variety of that rock, though a 
rhj'olite or clacite was obtained on the flank of the latter mountain. 
The volcanic line does not completely come to an end with Chili, 
foi Corcovado (7510 feet) iu the Patagonian Andes is a volcano, 
but though there may be some extinct cones yet farther south, 
the active vents are not continued to Cape Horn. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Ridge of Panama and the Andes. — The Great Canyon. — 
California and Utah. — Yellowstone Park. — Mexico 
and South America. 

IN 110 point is there a more remarkable contrast between the phy- 
sical structure of Eastern and Western America than in the 
absence of volcanic phenomena in the former aud their prodigious 
development in the latter. The great valley of the Mississippi 
and its tributaries forms the dividing territory between the vol- 
canic and non-volcanic areas ; so that on crossing the high ridges 
in which the western tributaries of America's greatest river have 
their sources, and to which the name of the " Rocky Mountains" 
more properly belongs, we find ourselves in a region which, 
throughout the later Tertiary times down almost to the present 
day, has been the scene of volcanic operations on the grandest 
scale ; where lava-floods have been poured over the country through 
thousands ot square miles, and where volcanic cones, vying in 
magnitude with those of Etna, Vesuvius, or Hecla, have estab- 
lished themselves. 

This region, generally known as "The Great Basia," is 
bounded on the west by the " Pacific Range " of mountains, and 
includes portions of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, 
Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana and Wash- 
ington. To the south it passes into the mountainous region of 
Mexico, also highly volcanic; and thence into the ridge of Pan- 
ama and the Andes. It cannot be questioned but that the volcanic 
nature of the Great Basin is due to the same causes which have 
originated the volcanic outbursts of the Andes ; but, from what- 
ever cause, the volcanic forces have here entered upon their sec- 
ondary or moribund stage. 

In the Yellowstone Valley, geysers, hot springs and fumaroles 

give evidence of this condition. In other districts the lava streams 

are so fresh and unweathered as to suggest that they had been 

?55 



256 HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES, 

erupted only a few hundred years ago ; but no active vent or cratet 
is to be found over tbe whole of this wide region. A few special 
districts only can here be selected by way of illustration of its 
special features in connection with its volcanic history. 

This tract, which is drained by the Colorado river and its 
tributaries, is bounded on the north by the Wahsatch range, and 
extends eastward to the base of the Sierra Nevada. Round its 
margin extensive volcanic tracts are to be found, with numerous 
peaks and truncated cones — the ancient craters of eruption — of 
which Mount San Francisco is the culminating eminence. 

South of the Wahsatch, and occupying the high plateaux of 
Utah, enormous masses of volcanic products have been spread 
over an area of 9000 square miles, attaining a thickness of 
between 3000 and 4000 feet. The earlier of these great lava- 
floods appear to have been trachytic, but the later basaltic ; and 
in the opinion of Captain Button, who has described them, they 
range in point of time from the Middle Tertiary (Miocene) down 
to comparatively recent times. 

HIGH LEVELS IN UTAH. 

To the south of the high plateaux of Utah are many minox 
volcanic mountains, now extinct ; and as we descend towards the 
Grand Canon of Colorado we find numerous cinder cones scat- 
tered about at intervals near the cliffs. Extensive lava fields, sur- 
mounted by cinder cones, occupy the plateau on the western side 
of the Grand Canon ; and, according to Button, the great sheets 
of basaltic lava, of very recent age, which occupy many hundred 
square miles of desert, have had their sources in these cones of 
eruption. 

Crossing to the east of the Grand Canon, we find other lava 
floods poured over the country at intervals, surmounted by San 
Francisco — a volcanic mountain of the first magnitude — which 
reaches an elevation, according to Wheeler, of 12,562 feet above 
the ocean. It has long been extinct, and its summit and flanks 
are covered with snow fields and glaciers. Other parts of Arizona 
are overspread by sheets of basaltic lava, through which old 



HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 257 

*' Qecks " of eruption, formed of more solid lava than the sheets, 
rise occasionally above the surface, and are prominent features in 
the landscape. 

Further to the eastward in New Mexico, and near the margin 
of the volcanic region, is another volcanic mountain little less 
lofty than San Francisco, called Mount Taylor, which, according 
to Button, rises to an elevation of 11,390 feet above the ocean, 
and 8200 feet above the general level of the surrounding plateau 
of lava. This mountain forms the culminating point of a wide 
volcanic tract, over which are distributed numberless vents of 
eruption. Scores of such vents — generally cinder cones — are 
visible in every part of the plateau, and always in a more or less 
dilapidated condition. Mount Taylor is a volcano, with a central 
pipe terminating in a large crater, the wall of which was broken 
down on the east side in the later stage of its history. 

VOLCANIC RANGES. 

Proceeding westward into California, we are again confronted 
with volcanic phenomena on a stupendous scale. The coast range 
of mountains, which branches off from the Sierra Nevada at 
Mount Pinos, on the south, is terminated near the northern ex- 
tremity of the State by a very lofty mountain of volcanic origin, 
called Mount Shasta, which attains an elevation of 14,511 feet. 
This mountain M-as first ascended by Clarence King in 1870, and 
although forming, as it were, a portion of the Pacific Coast Range, 
it really rises from the plain in solitary grandeur, its summit 
covered by snow, aud originating several fine glaciers. 

The summit of Mount Shasta is a nearly perfect cone, but 
from its northwest side there juts out a large crater-cone just be- 
low the snow line, between which and the main mass of the moun- 
tain their exists a deep depression filled with glacier ice. This 
secondary crater-cone has been named Mount Shastina, and round 
its inner side the stream of glacier ice winds itself, sometimes 
surmounting the rim of the crater, and shooting down masses of 
ice into the great cauldron. 

The length of this glacier is about three milet^^ aud its breadth 

17-S. F. 



258 HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

about 4000 feet. Anotlier verj^ lofty volcanic mountain is Mount 
Rainier, in the Washington territory, consisting of three peaks 
of which the eastern possesses a crater very perfect throughout 
its entire circumfeience. This mountain appears to be formed 
mainly of trachytic matter. Proceeding further north into British 
territory, several volcanic mountains near the Pacific coast are said 
to exhibit evidence of activity. 

Of these may be mentioned Mount Edgecombe, Mount Fair- 
weather, which rises to a height of 14,932 feet ; and Mount St. 
Elias, just within the divisional line between British and Russian 
territory, and reaching an altitude of 16,860 feet. This, the loftiest 
of all of the volcanoes of the North American continent, except 
those of Mexico, may be considered as the connecting link in the 
volcanic chain between the continent aud the Aleutian Islands. 

LAKES AND THEIR ORIGIN. 

Returning to Utah we are brought into contact with phe- 
nomena of special interest, owing to the inter-relations of vol- 
canic and lacrustiue conditions which once prevailed over large 
tracts of that territory. The present Great Salt Lake, and the 
smaller neighboring lakes, those called Utah and Sevier, are but 
remnants of an originally far greater expanse of inland water, the 
boundaries of which have been traced out by Mr. C. K. Gilbert, 
and described under the name of Lake Bonneville. 

The waters of this lake appear to have reached their highest 
level at the maximum cold of the Post Pliocene period, when the 
glaciers descended to its margin, and large streams of glacier 
water were poured into it. Eruptions of basaltic lava from suc- 
cessive craters appear to have gone on before, during, and after the 
lacustrine epoch; and the drying up of the waters over the greater 
extent of their original area, now converted into the Sevier Desert, 
and their concentration into their present comparatively narrow 
basins, appears to have proceeded pai'i passu with the gradual 
extinction of the volcanic outbursts. 

Two successive epochs of eruption of basalt appears to have 
been clearly established — an earlier one of the " Provo Age," 



HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 259 

wHen the lava was extruded from the Tabernacle craters, and a 
later epoch, when the eruptions took place from the Ice Spring 
craters. The oldest volcanic rock appears to be rhyolite, which 
peers up in two small hills almost smothered beneath the lake 
deposits. Its eruption was long anterior to the lake period. 

On the other hand, the cessation of the eruptions of the later 
basaltic sheets is evidently an event of such recent date that Mr. 
Gilbert is led to look forward to their resumption at some future, 
but not distant, epoch. As he truly observes, we are not to infer 
that, because the outward manifestations of volcanic action have 
ceased, the internal causes of those manifestations have passed 
away. These are still in operation, and must make themselves 
felt when the internal forces have recovered their exhausted 
energies ; but perhaps not to the same extent as before. 

COUNTRY BORDERING SNAKE RIVER. 

The tract of country bordering the Snake River in Idaho and 
Washington is remarkable for the vast sheets of plateau-basalt 
with which it is overspread, extending sometimes in one great 
flood farther than the eye can reach, and what is still more 
remarkable, they are often unaccompanied by any visible craters 
or vents of eruption. In Oregon the plateau-basalt is at least 2000 
feet in thickness, and where traversed by the Columbia River it 
reaches a thickness of about 3000 feet. 

The Snake and Columbia rivers are lined by walls of volcanic 
rock, basaltic above, trachytic below, for a distance of, in the 
former, one hundred, in the latter, two hundred, miles. Captain 
Button, in describing the High Plateau of Utah, observes that the 
lavas appear to have welled up in mighty floods without any of 
that explosive violence generally characteristic of volcanic action. 
This extravasated matter has spread over wide fields, deluging the 
surrounding country like a tide in a bay, and overflowing all in- 
equalities. Here also we have evidence of older volcanic cones 
buried beneath seas of lava subsequently extruded. 

The absence or rarity, of volcanic craters or cones of eruption 
in the neighborhood of these great sheets has led American geolo- 



200 HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

gists to the conclusion that the lavas were in many cases extruded 
from fissures in the earth's crust rather than from ordinary craters. 
This view is also urged by Sir A. Geikie, who visited the Utah 
region of the Snake River in 1880, and has vividly described 
the impression produced by the sight of these vast fields of 
basaltic lava. 

He says, " We found that the older trachytic lavas of the hills 
had been deeply trenched by the lateral valleys and that all these 
valleys had a floor of black basalt that had been poured out as the last 
of the molten material from the now extinct volcanoes. There were 
no visible cones or vents from which these floods of basalt could have 
proceeded. We rode for hours by the margin of a vast plain of basalt 
stretching southward and westward as far as the eye could reach. 
I realized the truth of an assertion made first by Richthofen, that 
our modern volcanoes, such as Vesuvius and ^tna, present us with 
by no means the grandest type of volcanic action, but rather belong 
to a time of failing activity. There have been periods of tremendous 
volcanic energy, when instead of escaping from a local vent, like 
a Vesuvian cone, the lava has found its way to the surface by 
innumerable fissures opened for it in the solid crust of the globe 
over thousands of square miles." 

HISTORY OF THE ERUPTIONS. 

The general succession of volcanic events throughout the 
region of Western America appears to have been somewhat as 
follows : 

The earliest volcanic eruptions occurred in the later 
Eocene epoch and were continued into the succeeding Miocene 
stage. These consisted of rocks moderately rich in silica, and are 
grouped under the heads of propylite and andesite. To these 
succeeded during the Pliocene epoch still more highly silicated 
rocks of trachytic type, consisting of sanidine and oligoclase 
trach3'tes. 

Then came eruptions of rhyolite during the later Pliocene 
and Pleistocene epoch ; and lastly, after a period of cessation, 
during which the rocks just described were greatly eroded, came 



HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 261 

the great eruptions of basaltic lava, delugiug the plaius, winding 
round the cones or plateaux of the older lavas, descending into the 
river valleys and flooding the lake b6ds, issuing from both vents 
and fissures, and continuing intermittently down almost into the 
present day — certainly into the period of man's appearance on 
the scene. 

Thus the volcanic history of Western America corresponds 
remarkably to that of the European regions with which we have 
previously dealt, both as regards the succession of the various 
lavas and the epochs of their eruption. 

The geysers and hot springs of the Yellowstone Park, like 
those in Iceland and New Zealand, are special manifestations of 
volcanic action, geuerall}^ in its secondary or moribund stage. 
The geysers of the Yellowstone occur on a grand scale ; the 
eruptions are frequent, and the water is projected into the air to a 
height of over 200 feet. Most of these are intermittent, like the 
remarkable one known as Old Faithful, the Castle Geyser, and 
the Giantess Geyser described by Dr. Hayden, which ejects the 
water to a height of 250 feet. 

TINTS OF RED AND YELLOW. 

The geyser waters hold large quantities of silica and sulphur 
in solution, owing to their high temperature under great pressure, 
and these minerals are precipitated upon the cooling of the waters 
in the air, and form circular basins, often gorgeously tinted with 
red and yellow colors. 

In the great Pacific Ocean, the Islands maybe referred to two 
classes, distinguished by their elevation into high and low. The 
latter class appear to be entirely of modern formation, the product of 
that accumulation of coral reefs which Flinders and others have 
described in so interesting a manner. The high islands, on the 
contrary, are chiefly volcanic, though in the Friendly and Mar- 
quesa Islands primitive rocks occur, and in the Waohoo porphyry 
and amygdaloid. 

The Mariana or Ladrone Islands constitute a sort of moun- 
tain chain, consisting of a line of active volcanoes, especially 



262 HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

towards their norfh, which is parallel to that of the Philippine 
group, whereas the islands that lie detached in the middle of the 
basin, of which these two groups are the boundaries, seem for the 
most part to be extinguished. 

Mr. Ellis, a missionary, has given in a narrative of a Tour 
Through the Hawaii Islands a most detailed account of the active 
volcano of Hawaii. 

The plain over which their way to the mountain lay was a 
vast waste of ancient lava, which he thus describes : — "The tract 
of lava resembled in appearance an inland sea, bounded by distant 
mountains. Once it had certainly been in a fluid state, but 
appeared as if it had become suddenly petrified, or turned into a 
glassy stone, while its agitated billows were rolling to and fro. 
Not only were the large swells and hollows distinctly marked, but 
in many places the surface of these billows was covered by a 
smaller ripple, like that observed on the surface of the sea at the 
springing up of a breeze, or the passing currents of air, which pro- 
duce what the sailors call a cats-paw. 

EDGE OF A STEEP PRECIPICE. 

"About 2 P. M. the crater of Kilauea suddenly burst upon our 
view. We expected to have seen a mountain with a broad base 
and rough, indented sides, composed of loose slags, or hardened 
streams of lava, and whose summit would have presented a 
rugged wall of scoria, forming the rim of a mighty cauldron. 
But instead of this, we found ourselves on the edge of a steep 
precipice, with a vast plain before us fifteen or sixteen miles in 
circumference, and sunk from two hundred to four hundred feet 
below its original level. The surface of this plain was uneven, 
and strewed over with huge stones and volcanic rock, and in the 
center of it was the great crater, at the distance of a mile and a 
half from the place where we were standing. We walked on to 
the north end of the ridge, where, the precipice being less steep, a 
descent to the plain below seemed practicable. With all our care, 
we did not reach the bottom without several falls and slight bruises. 

"After walking some distance over the sunken plain, which 



HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 26^ 

in several places sounded Hollow under our feet, we at length came 
to the edge of the great crater, where a spectacle sublime, and 
even appalling, presented itself before us. Immediately before us 
yawned an immense gulf, in the form of a crescent, about two 
miles in length, from N. E. to S. W., nearly a mile in width, and 
apparently eight hundred feet deep. The Dottom was covered with 
lava, and the S. W. and northern parts of it were one vast flood of 
burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and fro 
its 'fiery surge' and flaming billows. 

A BURNING LAKE. 

"Fift3/--one conical islands of varied form and size, containing 
so many craters, rose either round the edge, or from the surface 
of the burning lake; twenty-two constantly emitted columns of 
grey smoke, or pyramids of brilliant flame ; and several of these 
at the same time vomited from their ignited mouths streams of 
lava, which rolled in blazing torrents down their black indented 
sides, into the boiling mass below. The existence of these conical 
craters led us to conclude that the boiling cauldron of lava before 
us did not form the focus of the volcano; that this mass of melted 
lava was comparatively shallow ; and that the basin in which it 
was contained was separated by a stratum of solid matter from 
the great volcanic abyss, which constantly poured out its melted 
contents through these numerous craters into this upper reservoir. 

''The sides of the gulch before us, although composed of 
different strata of ancient lava, were perpendicular for about four 
hundred feet, and rose from a wide horizontal ledge of solid black 
lava of irregular breadth, but extending completely round, beneath 
this ledge, the sides sloped gradually towards the burning lake, 
which was, as nearly as we could judge, three hundred or four 
hundred feet lower. It was evident that the large crater had been 
recently filled with liquid lava up to this black ledge, and had, by 
some subterraneous canal, emptied itself into the sea or under the 
low land on the shore. 

" The grey, and in some places apparently calcined sides of 
the great crater before us — the fissures which intersected the sur- 



264 HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

face of the plain on which we were standing — the long banks of 
sulphur on the opposite side of the ab3^ss — the vigorous action of 
the numerous small craters on its borders — the dense columns of 
vapor and smoke that rose at the N. and S. end of the plain — 
together with the ridge of steep rocks by which it was surrounded, 
rising probabl}^ in some places three or four hundred feet in a per- 
pendicular height, presented an immense volcanic panorama, the 
effect of which was greatly augmented by the constant roaring of 
the vast furnaces below 

"The natives still persist in believing, that the conical craters 
of the mountains are the houses of their gods, where they frequently 
amuse themselves by playing at Konane (a game like draughts); 
that the roaring of the furnaces and the crackling of the flames 
are the music of their dance, and that the red flaming surge is the 
surf in which they play, sportively swimming on the rolling wave. 
Some of their legends may remind us of those that prevailed 
among the Greeks. 

CURIOUS OLD LEGEND. 

" Thus one of their kings, who had offended Pel6, the princi- 
pal goddess of the volcano, is pursued by her to the shore, where 
leaping into a canoe he paddles out to sea. Pele, perceiving his 
escape, hurls after him huge stones and fragments of rock, which 
fall thickly around, but do not strike the canoe. A number of 
rocks in the sea are shown by the natives, which like the C3'clo- 
pean Islands at the foot of Mount Etna, are said to have been 
those thrown by Pele to sink the boat. 

" This legend is very characteristic of the manners and feel- 
ings of savage life. The king is represented as taking little pains 
to secure the escape of anyone but himself, for his mother, wife 
and children are all abandoned without compunction ; his conduct 
to the friend who accompanies him is the onl\^ trait which redeems 
his character from the charge of utter selfishness, nor among the 
natives who tell the story, is their praise of the adroitness with 
which he effected his escape, at all less commended on account of 
this desertion of his nearest relations." 



HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 265 

The globe is girdled by a chain of volcanic mountains in a 
state of greater or less activity, which may, perhaps, be considered 
a girdle of safety for the whole world, through which the masses 
of molten matter in a state of high pressure beneath the crust 
find a way of escape ; and thus the structure of the globe is pre- 
served from even greater convulsions than those which from time 
to time take place at various points on its surface. 

This girdle is partly terrestrial, partly submarine ; and C(nn- 
mencing at Mount Erebus, near the Antarctic Pole, ranging 
through South Shetland Isle, Cape Horn, the Andes of South 
America, the Isthmus of Panama, then through Central America 
and Mexico, and the Rocky Mountains to Kamtschatka, the Aleu- 
tian Islands, the Kuriles, the Japanese, the Philippines, New 
Guinea, and New Zealand, reaches the Antartic Circle by the 
Balleny Islands. This girdle sends off branches at several points. 

DORMANT VOLCANIC EVENTS. 

The linear arrangement of active or dormant volcanic vents 
has been pointed out by Humboldt, Von Buch, Daubeny and other 
writers. The great range of burning mountains of the Andes of 
Chili, Peru,. Bolivia, and Mexico, that of the Aleutian Islands of 
Kamtschatka and the Kurile Islands, extending southwards into 
the Philippines, and the branching range of the Sunda Islands 
are well known examples. That of the West Indian Islands, rang- 
ing from Grenada through St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Martinique, 
Dominica, Gaudeloupe, Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Eustace, is also 
a remarkable example of the linear arragement of volcanic moun- 
tains. On tracing these ranges on a map of the world it will be 
observed that they are either strings of islands, or lie in proximity 
to the ocean ; and hence the view was naturally entertained by 
some writers that oceanic water, or at any rate that of a large lake 
or sea, was a necessary agent in the production of volcanic 
eruptions. 

This view seems to receive further corroboration from the 
fact that the interior portions of the continents and large islands 
such as Australia are destitute of volcanoes in action, with the 



266 HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

remarkable exceptions of Mounts Kenia and Kilimanjaro in Cen- 
tral Africa, and a few others. It is also ver}^ significant in this 
connection that many of the volcanoes now extinct, or at least 
dormant, both in Europe and Asia, appear to have been in prox- 
imity to sheets of water during the period of activity. 

Thus the old volcanoes of the Hauran, east of the Jordan, 
appear to have been active at the period when the present Jordan 
valley was filled with water to such an extent as to constitute a 
lake two hundred miles in length, but which has now shrunk back 
to within the present limits of the Dead Sea. Again, at the 
period when the extinct volcanoes of Central France were in 
active operation, an extensive lake overspread the tract lying to 
the east of the granitic plateau on which the craters and domes 
are planted, now constituting the rich and fertile plain of Cler- 
mont. 

WATER AND EXPLOSIONS. 

Such instances are too significant to allow us to doubt that 
water in some form is very generally connected with volcanic 
operations ; but it does not follow that it was necessary 
to the original formation of volcanic vents, whether linear or 
sporadic. If this were so, the extinct volcanoes of the British 
Isles would still be active, as they are close to the sea-margin, 
and no volcano would now be active which is not near to some 
large sheet of water. 

But Jorullo, one of the great active volcanoes of Mexico, lies 
no less than 120 miles from the ocean, and Cotopaxi, in Ecuador, 
is nearly equally distant. Kilimanjaro ,18,881 feet high, and Kenia, 
in the equatorial regions of Central Africa, are about 150 miles 
from the Victoria Nyanza, and a still greater distance from the 
ocean ; and Mount Demavend, in Persia, which rises to an eleva- 
tion of 18,464 feet near the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, a 
volcanic mountain of the first magnitude, is now extinct or 
dormant. 

Such facts as these all tend to show that although water may 
be an accessory of volcanic eruptions, it is not in all cases 
essential ; and we are obliged, therefore, to have recourse to some 



HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 267 

other theory of volcanic action differing from that which would 
attribute it to the access of water to highly heated or molten 
matter within the crust of the earth. 

The view of Leopold von Buch, who considered that the great 
lines of volcanic mountains above referred to rise along the 
borders of rents, or fissures, in the earth's crust, is one which is 
inherently probable, and is in keeping with observation. That 
the crust of the globe is to a remarkable extent fissured and torn 
in all directions is a phenomenon familiar to all field geologists. 
Such rents and fissures are often accompanied by displacement of 
the strata, owing to which the crust has been vertically elevated 
on one side or lowered on the other, and such displacements (or 
"faults") sometimes amount to thousands of feet. 

A SYSTEM OF FISSURES. 

It is only occasionally, however, that such fractures are 
accompanied by the extrusion of molten matter ; and in the north 
of England and Scotland dykes of igneous rock, such as basalt, 
which run across the country for many miles in nearly straight 
lines, often cut across the faults, and are only rarely coincident 
with them. Nevertheless, it can scarcely be a question that the 
grand chain of volcanic mountains which stretches almost contin- 
uousl}'' along the Andes of South America, and northwards through 
Mexico, has been piled up along the line of a system of fissures in 
the fundamental rocks parallel to the coast, though not actually 
coincident therewith. 

The structure and arrangemnt of the Cordilleras of Quito, 
for example, are eminently suggestive of arrangement along lines 
of fissure. As shown by Alexander von Humboldt, the volcanic 
mountains are disposed in two parallel chains, which run side by 
side for a distance of over 500 miles northwards into the State of 
Columbia, and enclose between them the high plains of Quito 
and Lacunga. Along the eastern chain are the great cones of 
El Altar, rising to an elevation of 16,383 feet above the ocean, 
and having an enormous crater apparently dormant or extinct^ 
and covered with snow ; then Cotopaxi, its sides covered with 



268 HOME OF AMERICAN V0LCAN0F3. 

snow, and sending forth from its crater several columns of smoke ; 
then Guamani and Cayambe (19,000 feet), huge truncated cones 
apparently extinct ; these constitute the eastern chain of volcanic 
heights. 

The western chain contains even loftier mountains. Here 
we find the gigantic Chimborazo, an extinct volcano whose summit 
is white with snow ; Carihuairazo and lUiniza, a lofty pointed 
peak like the Matterhorn ; Corazon, a snow-clad dome, reaching a 
height of 15,871 feet; Atacazo and Pichincha, the latter an. 
extinct volcano reaching an elevation of 15,920 feet ; such is the 
western chain, remarkable for its straightness, the volcanic cones 
being planted in one grand procession from south to north. This 
rectilinear arrangement of the western chain, only a little less 
conspicuous in the eastern, is very suggestive of a line of fracture 
in the crust beneath. 

And when we contemplate the prodigious quantity of matter 
included within the limits of these colossal domes and their envi- 
ronments, all of which has been extruded from the internal reser- 
voirs, we gain some idea of the manner in which the contracting 
crust disposes of the matter it can no longer contain. 

QUITO AND PERU. 

Between the volcanoes of Quito and those of Peru there is an 
intervening space of fourteen degrees of latitude. This is occupied 
by the Andes, regarding the structure of which we have not 
much information except that at this part of its course it is not 
volcanic. But from Arequipa in Peru, an active volcano, we find a 
new series of volcanic mountains continued southwards through 
Tacora (19,740 feet), then further south the more or less active 
vents of Sajama (22,915 feet), Coquina,Tutupaca,Calama, Atacama, 
Toconado, and others, forming an almost continuous range with 
that part of the desert of Atacama pertaining to Chili. 

Through this country we find the volcanic range appearing 
at intervals ; and still more to the southwards it is doubtless con- 
nected with the volcanoes of Patagonia, north of the Magellan 
Straits, and of Terra del Fuego. Mr. David Forbes considers 



HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 200 

that this great range of volcanic mountains, lying nearly north 
and south, corresponds to a line of fracture lying somewhat to the 
east of the range. 

A similar statement in all probability applies to the systems 
of volcanic mountains of the Aleutian Isles, Kamtschatka, the 
Kuriles, the Philippines, and Sunda Isles. Nor can it be reason- 
ably doubted that the Western American coast line has to a great 
extent been determined, or marked out, by such lines of displace- 
ment ; for, as Darwin has shown, the whole western coast of South 
America, for a distance of between 2000 and 3000 miles south of 
the Equator, has undergone an upward movement in very recent 
times — that is, within the period of living marine shells — during 
which period the volcanoes have been in activity. 

GROUPS OF VOLCANOES. 

This chain may also be cited in evidence of volcanic action 
along fissure lines. It connects the volcanoes of Kamtschatka 
with those of Japan, and the linear arrangement is apparent. In 
the former peninsula Erman counted no fewer than thirteen active 
volcanic mountains rising to heights of 12,000 to 15,000 feet above 
the sea. In the chain of the Kuriles Professor John Milne 
counted fifty-two well-defined volcanoes, of which nine, perhaps 
more, are certainly active. 

They are not so high as those of Kamtschatka ; but, on the 
other hand, they rise from very deep oceanic waters, and have 
been probably built up from the sea bottom by successive erup- 
tions of tuff, lava, and ash. According to the view of Professor 
Milne, the volcanoes of the Kurile chain are fast becoming 
extinct. 

Besides the volcanic vents arranged in lines, of which we have 
treated above, there are a large number, both active and extinct, 
which appear to be disposed in groups, or sporadically distributed, 
over various portions of the earth's surface. I say appear to be, 
because this sporadic distribution may really be resolvable (at 
least in some cases) into linear distribution for short distances, 
^hus the Neapolitan Group, which might at first sight seem to 



270 HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

be arranged around Vesuvius as a centre, really resolves itself 
into a line of active and extinct vents of eruption, ranging across 
Italy from tlie Tyrrhenian Sea to the Adriatic, through Ischia, 
Procida, Monte Nuovo and the Phlegrseau Fields, Vesuvius and 
Mount Vulture. 

Again, the extinct volcanoes of Central France, which appear 
to form an isolated group, indicate, when viewed in detail, a linear 
arrangement ranging from north to south. Another region over 
which extinct craters are distributed lies along the banks of the 
Rhine, above Bonn and the Moselle ; a fourth in Hungary ; a fifth 
in Asia Minor and Northern Palestine; and a sixth in Central 
Asia around Lake Balkash. These are all continental, and the 
linear distribution is not apparent. 

By far the most extensive regions with sporadicall}^ distrib- 
uted volcanic vents, both active and extinct, are those which are 
overspread by the waters of the ocean, where the vents emerge in 
the form of islands. These are to be found in all the great oceans, 
the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian ; but are especially numer- 
ous over the central Pacific region. 

VOLCANIC CORAL REEFS. 

As Kotzebue and subsequently Darwin have pointed out, all 
the islands of the Pacific are either coral-reefs or of volcanic origin ; 
and many of these rise from great depths ; that is to say, from 
depths of looo to 2000 fathoms. It is unnecessary here to attempt 
to enumerate all these islands which rise in solitary grandeur 
from the surface of the ocean, and are the scenes of volcanic opera- 
tions ; a few may, however, be enumerated. 

In the Atlantic, Iceland first claims notice, owing to the mag- 
nitude and number of its active vents and the variety of the accom- 
pan3dng phenomena, especially the geysers. As Lyell has 
observed, with the exception of Etna and Vesuvius, the most com- 
plete chronological records of a series of eruptions in existence 
are those of Iceland, which come down from the ninth centurj' of 
our era, and which go to show that since the twelfth centur}^ there 
has never been an interval of more than forty years without either 



HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 271 

an eruption or a great earthquake. So intense is tlie volcanic 
energy in this island that some of the eruptions of Hecla have 
lasted six years without cessation. 

Earthquakes have often shaken the whole island at once, 
causing great changes in the interior, such as the sinking down 
of hills, the rending of mountains, and the desertion by rivers of 
their channels, and the appearance of new lakes. New islands 
have often been thrown up near the coast, while others have dis- 
appeared. In the intervals between eruptions, innumerable hot 
springs afford vent to the subterranean heat, and solfataras dis- 
charge copious streams of inflammable matter. The volcanoes in 
different parts of the island are observed, like those of the Phle- 
graean Fields, to be in activity by turns, one vent serving for a 
time as a safety-valve for the others. 

A HISTORIC ERUPTION, 

The most memorable eruption of recent years was that of 
Skapta Jokul in 1783, when a new island was thrown up, and two 
torrents of lava issued forth, one forty-five and the other fifty 
miles in length, and which, according to the estimate of Professor 
Bischoff, contained matter surpassing in magnitude the bulk of 
Mont Blanc. One of these streams filled up a large lake, and 
entering the channel of the Skapta, completely dried up the river. 
The volcanoes of Iceland may be considered as safety-valves 
to the region in which lie the British Isles. 

This group of volcanic isles rises from deep Atlantic waters 
north of the Equator, and the vents of eruption are partially active, 
partially dormant, or extinct. It must be supposed, however, that 
at a former period volcanic action was vastly more energetic than 
at present ; for except at the Grand Canary, Gomera, Forta Ven- 
tura and Lancerote, where various non-volcanic rocks are found, 
these islands appear to have been built up from their foundations 
of eruptive materials. 

The highest point in the Azores is the Peak of Pico, which 
rises to a height of 7016 feet above the ocean. But this great ele» 
vation is surpassed by that of the Peak of Teneriffe (or Pic de 



i>7i! HOME OF AMERICAN VOLCANOES. 

Teyde) in the Canaries, wliich attains to an elevation of 12,225 
feet, as determined by Professor Piazzi Smyth. 

This great volcanic cone, rising from the ocean, its summit 
shrouded in snow, and often protruding above the clouds, must be 
an object of uncommon beauty and interest when seen from the 
deck of a ship. The central cone, formed of trach3^te, pumice, 
obsidian and ashes, rises out of a vast cauldron of older balsaltic 
rocks with precipitous inner walls— much as the cone of A^esuvius 
rises from within the partiall}- encircling walls of Somma. From 
the summit issue forth sulphurous vapors, but no flame. 

OUTER RING OF BASALT. 

Piazzi Smyth, who during a prolonged vist to this mountain 
in iSs6 made a careful survej- of its form and structure, shows 
that the great cone is surrounded by an outer ring of basalt 
enclosing two foci of eruption, the lavas from which have broken 
through the ring of the outer crater on the western side, and have 
poured down the mountain. At the top of the peak its once active 
crater is filled up, and we find a convex surface ("The Plain of 
Rambleta") surmounted towards its eastern end by a diminutive 
cone, 500 feet high, called '' Humboldt's Ash Cone." The slope 
of the great cone of Teneriffe ranges from 28° to 38°; and below a 
level of 7000 feet the general slope of the whole mountain down to 
the water s edge varies from 10° to 12'^ from the horizontal. The 
great cone is penetrated b}- numerous basaltic dykes. 

The Cape de Verde Islands, which contain beds of limestone 
along with volcanic matter, possess in the island of Fuego an 
active volcano, rising to a height of 7000 feet above the surface of 
the ocean. The central cone, like that of Teneriffe, rises from 
within an outer crater, formed of basalt alternating with beds of 
agglomerate, and traversed by numerous dykes of lava. This has 
been broken down on one side like that of Somma ; and over its 
flanks are scattered numerous cones of scoria, Lhe most recent 
dating from the years 1785 and 1799. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Amazing Phknomrna Connected with Volcanoes and 
Earthquakes. — Fiery Explosions and Mountains in 
Convulsions. — Changes in the Surface of the Earth. 



BY sir. JOHN F. W. HERSCHEL, BART. 



[The following: accurate and scientific account of the causes and 
effects of volcanoes and earthquakes is furnished by the most eminent 
authority on these subjects known to the world, and is of special interest in 
connection with the great disasters in California.] 

I PURPOSE to say something about volcanoes and earthquakes. 
It is a subject I have thought a good deal about, and though I 
have never been so fortunate as to have been shaken out of my 
bed by an earthquake, still I have climbed the cones of Vesuvius 
and Etna, hammer in hand and barometer on back, and have wan- 
dered over and geologized among, I believe, nearly all the principal 
scenes of extinct volcanic activity in Europe. 

Every one knows that a volcano is a mountain that vomits 
out fire, and smoke, and cinders, and melted lava, and sulphur, and 
steam, and gases, and all kinds of horrible things ; nay, even 
sometimes mud, and boiling water, and fishes ; and everybody 
has heard or read of the earth opening, and swallowing up man 
and beast, and houses and churches ; and closing on them with a 
snap, and smashing them to pieces ; and then perhaps opening 
again, and casting them out with a flood of dirty water from some 
river or lake that has been gulped down with them. Now, all 
Ihis, and much more, is literally true, and has happened over and 
over again ; and when we have imagined it all, we shall have 
formed a tolerably correct notion of some at least of these 

visitations. 

18-S. F, 273 



274 AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 

And perhaps some ma}^ have been tempted to ask why and 
how it is that God has permitted this fair earth to be visi:ed with 
snch destruction. It can hardly be for the sins of men : for when 
these things occur they involve alike the innocent and the gnilt}^ ; 
and besides , the volcano and the earthquake were raging on this 
earth M-itli as much, nay greater violence, thousands and thou- 
sands of years before man set foot upon it. But perhaps, on the 
other hind, it may have occurred to some to ask themselves 
whether it is not just possible that these ngly affairs are sent 
among us for some beneficent purposes ; or at all events that they 
may form part and parcel of some great scheme of providential 
arrangement which is at work for good and not for ill. 

INCIDENTAL CATASTROPHES. 

A ship sometimes strikes on a rock, and all on board perish ; 
a railway train runs into another, or breaks down, and then wounds 
and contusions are the order of the day ; but nobody doubts that 
navigation and railway communication are great blessings. None 
of the great natural provisions for producing good are exempt in 
their workings from producing occasional mischief. Storms 
disperse and dilute pestilental vapors, and lightnings decompose 
and destroy them ; but both the one and the other often annihilate 
the works of man, and inflict upon him sudden deaths 

Well, then, I think I shall be able to show that the volcano 
and the earthquake, dreadful as they are, as local and temporary 
visitations, are in fact unavoidable (I had almost said necessary) 
incidents in a vast system of action to which we owe the very 
ground we stand upon, the very land we inhabit^ without which 
neither man, beast, nor bird would have a place for their existence, 
and the world would be the habitation of nothing but fishes. 

Now, to make this clear, I must go a little out of my way 
and say something about the first principles of geology. Geology 
does not pretend to go back to the creation of the world, or concern 
itself about its primitive state, but it does concern itself with the 
changes it sees going on in it now, and with the evidence of a long- 
series of such changes it can produce in the most unmistakable 



AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 275 

features of tlie structure of our rocks and soil, and the wa^^ in 
which they lie one on the other. 

As to what we see going on. — We see everywhere, and along 
every coast-line, the sea warring against the land, and everywhere 
overcoming it ; wearing and eating it down, and battering it to 
pieces ; grinding those pieces to powder ; carrying the powder 
awa}'-, and spreading it out over its own bottom, by the continued 
effect of the tides and currents. Look at our chalk cliffs, which 
once, no doubt, extended across the Channel to the similar cliffs 
on the French coast. 

What do we see ? Precipices cut down to the sea-beach, 
constantly hammered by the waves and constantly crumbling : 
the beach itself made of the flints outstanding after the softer 
chalk had been ground down and washed away ; themselves 
grinding one onother under the same ceaseless discipline ; first 
rounded into pebbles, then worn into sand, and then carried out 
farther and farther down the slope, to be replaced by fresh ones 
from the same source. 

PROCESSES GOING ON. 

Well, the same thing is going on everjrwhere, round every 
coast of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Foot b}^ foot or inch 
by inch, month by month or century by century, down every- 
thing must go. Time is as nothing in geology. And what the 
sea is doing the river is helping it to do. Look at the sand-banks 
at the mouth of the Thames. What are they but the materials of 
our island carried out to sea by the stream ? The Ganges carries 
awa}' from the soil of India, and delivers into the sea, twice as 
much solid substance weekly as is contained in the great pyramid 
of Eg3'pt. The Irawaddy sweeps off from Burmah sixtA'-two cubic 
feet of earth in every second of time on an average, and there are 
86,400 seconds in every day, and 365 days in every year ; and so 
on for the other riveis. 

What has become of all that great bed of chalk which once 
covered all the weald of Kent, and formed a continuous mass from 
Ramsgate avxd Dover to Beechy Head, running inland to Madams- 



276 AMAZING THENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 

court Hill and Seven Oaks ? All clean gone, and swept out into 
the bosom of the Atlantic, and there forming other chalk-beds. 
Now, geology assures us, on the most conclusive and undeniable 
evidence, that all our present land, all our continents and islands 
have been formed in this way out of the ruins of former ones. The 
old ones which existed at the beginning of things have all per- 
ished, and what we now stand upon has most assuredh* been, at 
one time or other, perhaps mau}^ times, the bottom of the sea. 

Well, then, there is power enough at work, and it has been 
at work long enough utterl}- to have cleared away and spread over 
the bed of the sea all our present existing continents and islands, 
had the}- been placed where they are at the creation of the world ; 
and from this it follows as clear as demonstration can make it, 
that without some process of renovation and restoration to act in 
antagonism to this destructive work of old Neptune, there would 
not now be remaining a foot of dr}- land for living thing to stand 

upon. 

WERE HOISTED AT ONE BLOW. 

Now, what is this process of restoration ? Let the volcano 
and the earthquake tell their tale. Let the earthquake tell how, 
within the memorv of man — under the eyesight of e^-e-witnesses, 
one of whom (Airs. Graham) has described the fact — the whole 
coast line of Chili, for one hundred miles about A'alparaiso, with 
the mighty chain of the Andes — mountains to which the Alps 
sink into insignificance — was hoisted at one blow (in a single 
night, Nov. 19, A. D. 1822) from two to seven feet above its former 
level, leaving the beach below the old water mark high and dry ; 
leaving the shell-fish sticking on the rocks out of reach of water ; 
leaving the seaweed rotting in the air, or rather dr3nng up to dust 
under the burning sun of a coast where rain never falls. 

The ancients had a fable of Titan hurled from heaven and 
buried under Etna, and by his struggles causing the earthquakes 
that desolated Sicily. But here we have an exhibition of Titanic 
forces on a far mightier scale. One of the Andes upheaved on 
this occasion was the gigantic mass of Aconagva, which overlooks 
Valparaiso. To bring home to the mind the conception of sudi 



AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 277 

an effort, we must form a clear idea of what sort of mountain this 
is It is nearly 24,000 feet in height. ^ , . . 

Chimborazo, the loftiest of the volcanic cones of the Andes 
is lower by 2,500 feet ; and yet Etna, with Vesuvius at the top of 
it and another Vesuvius piled on that, would ittle more than 
surpass the midway portion of the snow-covered portion of that 
cone which is one of the many chimneys by which the hidden 
fires of the Andes fine vent. On the occasion I am speaking of, 
at least ten thousand square miles of country were estimated as 
having been upheaved, and the upheaval was not confined to the 
land but extended far away to sea, which was proved by the 
soundings off Valparaiso and along the coast, having been found 
considerably shallower than they were before the shock. ^ 

Aeain in the year 1819, m an earthquake m India, in the dis- 
trict of Cutch, bordering on the Indus, a tract of country more 
than fifty miles long and sixteen broad was suddenly raised ten 
feet above its former level. The raised portion still stands up 
above the unraised like a long perpendicular wall, which is known 
by the name of the "Ullah Bund," or ^ God's Wall." 
GIGANTIC UPHEAVALS. 
And again, in 1538, in that convulsion which threw up the 
Monte Nuovo (New Mountain), a cone of ashes 450 feet high, in 
a sincrle night ; the whole coast of Pozzuoli, near Naples, was 
raised twenty feet above its former level, and remains so perma- 
nently upheaved to this day. ^ And I could mention innumerable 
other instances of the same kind. 

This then is the manner in which the earthquake does its 
work • and it is always at work. Somewhere or other in the world, 
there 'is perhaps not a day, certainly not a month, without an 
earthquake. In those districts of South and Central America, 
where the great chain of volcanic cones is situated-Chimborazo, 
Cotopaxi, and a long list with names unmentionable, or at least 
nnpronounceable-the inhabitants no more think of counting earth- 
quake shocks than we do of counting showers of ram. 

Indeed, in JX)me places along the coast, a shower is a greater 



278 AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 

rarity. Even in our own island, near Pertli, a year seldom passes 
without a sHock, happily, within the records of history, never 
powerful enough to do any mischief. 

It is not everywhere that this process goes on by fits and 
starts. For instance, the northern gulfs, and borders of the 
Baltic Sea, are steadily shallowing ; and the whole mass of Scan- 
dinavia including Norway, Sweden and Lapland, is risiiig out of 
the sea at the average rate of about two feet per century. But as 
this fact (which is perfectly well established by reference to 
ancient high and low water marks) is not so evidently connected 
with the action of earthquakes, I shall not refer to it just now. 

All that I want to show is, that there is a great cycle of 
changes going on, in which the earthquake and volcano act a very 
conspicuous part, and that part a restorative and conserv^ative 
one ; in opposition to the steadily destructive and leveling action 
of the ocean waters. 

CAUSES OF THE PHENOMENA. 

How this can happen ; what can be the origin of such an 
enormous power thus occasionally exerting itself, will no doubt 
seem very marvelous — little short, indeed, of miraculous inter., 
vention — but the mystery, after all, is not quite so great as at first 
seems. We are permitted to look a little way into these great 
secrets ; not far enough, indeed, to clear up every difficulty, but 
quite enough to penetrate us with admiration of that wonderful 
system of counterbalances and compensations ; that adjustment 
of causes and consequences, by which, throughout all nature, 
evils are made to work their own cure ; life to spring out of death ; 
and renovation to tread in the steps and efface the vestiges of 
decay. 

The key to the whole affair is to be foiind in the central heat 
of the earth. This is no scientific dream, no theoretical notion, 
but a fact established b}'- direct evidence up to a certain point, and 
standing out from plain facts as a matter of unavoidable conclu- 
sion, in a hundred waj'c. 

We all know that when we go into a cellar out of a summer 



AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 27? 

siin it feels cool ; but when we go into it out of a wintry frost it 
is warm. The fact is, that a cellar, or a well, or any pit of a 
moderate depth, has always, day and night, summer and winter, 
the same degree of warmth, the same temperature, as it is called ; 
and that always and everywhere is the same, or nearly the same, 
as the average warmth of the climate of the place. Forty or fifty 
feet deep in the ground, the thermometer here in this spot, would 
always mark the same degree, 49°, that is, or seventeen degrees 
above the freezing point. Under the equator, at the same depth, 
it always stands at 84°, which is our hot summer heat, but which 
there is the average heat of the whole year. 

And this is so everywhere. Just at the surface, or a few 
inches below it, the ground is warm in the daytime, cool at night ; 
at two or three feet deep the difference of day and night is hardly 
perceptible, but that of summer and winter is considerable. But 
at forty or fifty feet this difference also disappears, and j^ou find a 
perfectly fixed, uniform degree of warmth, day and night ; summer 
and winter ; year after year. 

HOTTER AS WE GO DOWN. 

But when we go deeper, as, for instance, down into mine^* 
or coal-pits, this one broad and general fact is always observed — • 
everywhere, in all countries, in all latitudes, in all climates, 
wherever there are mines, or deep subterranean caves — the deeper 
you go, the hotter the earth is found to be. In one and the same 
mine, each particular depth has its own particiilar degree of heat, 
which never varies : but the lower always the hotter ; and that not 
by a trifling, but what may well be called an astonishingly rapid 
rate of increase — about a degree of the thermc meter additional 
warmth for every 90 feet of additional depth, which is about 58° 
per mile ! — so that, if we had a shaft sunk a mile deep, we should 
find in the rock a heat of 105°, which is much hotter than the 
hottest summer day ever experienced 

It is not everywhere, however, that it is worth while to sink a 
shaft to any great depth ; but borings for water (in what are 
called Artesian wells) are often made to etiormous depths, and the 



2«0 AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 

\vater always comes up hot ; and the deeper the boring, the hotter 
the water. There is a very famous boring of this sort in Paris, at 
La Crenelle. The water rises from a depth of 1794 feet, and its 
temperature is 82° of our scale, which is almost that of the 
equator. And, again, at Salzwerth, in Oeynhausen, in Germany, 
in a boring for salt springs 2144 feet deep, the salt water comes 
up with with a still higher heat, viz., 91°. 

Then, again, we have natural hot water springs, which rise, 
it is true, from depths we have no means of ascertaining ; but 
which, from the earliest recorded times, have always maintained 
the same heat. At Bath, for instance, the hottest well is 117° 
Fahr. On the Arkansas River, in the United States, is a spring 
of 180°, which is scalding hot ; and that out of the neighborhood 
of an}' volcano. 

MASS OF RED-HOT IRON. 

Now, onl}- consider what sort of a conclusion this lands us in. 
This globe of ours is 8000 miles in diameter ; a mile deep on its 
surface is a mere scratch. If a man had twenty greatcoats on, 
and I found under the first a warmth of 60° above the external 
air, I should expect to find 60° more under the second, and 60° more 
under the third, and so on ; and, within all, no man, but a mass of 
red-hot iron. 

Just so with the outside crust of the earth. Every mile thick 
is such a greatcoat, and at twenty miles depth, according to this 
rate, the ground must be fully red-hot ; and at no such ver}^ great 
depth beyond, either the whole must be melted, or only the most 
infusible and intractable kinds of material, such as our fireclaj^s 
and flints, would present some degree of solidity. 

In short, what the icefloes and icebergs are to the polar seas, 
so we shall come to regard our continents and mountain-ranges 
in relation to the ocean of melted matter beneath. I do not mean 
to sa}^ there is no solid central mass ; there ma}^ be one, or there 
may not, and, upon the whole, I think it likeU' enough that there 
is — kept solid, in spite of the heat, by the enormous pressure ; 
but that has nothing to do with the present argument. 



AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 281 

All that I contend for is this. — Grant me a sea of liquid fire, 
on which we are all floating — land and sea ; for the bottom of the 
sea anyhow will not come nearly down to the lava level. The sea is 
probably nowhere more than five or six miles deep, which is far 
enough above that level to keep its bed from becoming red-hot. 

Well, now, the land is perpetually wearing down, and the 
materials being carried out to sea. The coat of heavier matter is 
thinning off towards the land, and thickening over all the bed of the 
sea. What must happen ? If a ship float even on her keel, trans- 
fer weight from the starboard to her larboard side, will she con- 
tinue to float even ? No, certainly. She will heel over to larboard. 
Many a good ship has gone to the bottom in this way. If the 
continents be lightened, they will rise ; if the bed of the sea receive 
additional weight, it will sink. 

BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN SINKING. 

The bottom of the Pacific is sinking, in point of fact. Not 
that the Pacific is becoming deeper. This seems a paradox ; but 
it is easily explained. The whole bed of the sea is in the act of 
being pressed down by the laying on of new solid substance over 
its bottom. The new bottom then is laid upon the old, and so the 
actual bed of the ocean remains at or nearly at the same distance 
from the surface water. But what becomes of the islands ? They 
form part and parcel of the old bottom ; and Dr. Darwin has 
shown, by the most curious and convincing proofs, that they are 
sinking, and have been sinking for ages, and are only kept above 
water — by what, think you? By the labors of the coral insects, 
which always build up to the surface ! 

It is impossible but that this increase of pressure in some 
places and relief in others must be very unequal in their bearings. 
So that at some place or other this solid floating crust must be 
brought into a state of strain, and if there be a weak or soft part, 
a crack will at last take place. When this happens, down goes 
the land on the heavy side and up on the light side. Now this is 
exactly what took place in the earthquake which raised the Ullah 
Bund in Cutch. 



282 AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES, 

T "have told yoii of a great crack drawn across the country, not 
far from the coast line ; the inland country rose ten feet, but much 
of the sea-coast, and probably a large tract in the bed of the Indian 
Ocean, sank considerably below its former level. And just as you 
see when a crack takes place in ice, the water oozes up ; so this 
kind of thing is always, or almost always, followed by an upburst 
of the subterranean fiery matter. The earthquake of Cutch was 
terminated by the outbreak of a volcano at the town of Bhooi, which 
it destroyed. 

Now where, following out this idea, should we naturally 
expect such cracks and outbreaks to happen ? Why, of course, 
aloug those lines where the relief of pressure on the land side is 
the greatest, and also its increase on the sea side ; that is to say, 
along or in the neighborhood of the sea-coasts, where the destruc- 
tion of the land is going on with most activity. 

CLOSE TO THE COAST LINE. 

Well, now, it is a remarkable fact in the history of volcanoes, 
that there is hardly an instance of an active volcano at any con- 
siderable distance from the sea cost. All the great volcanic chain 
of the Andes is close to the western coast line of America. Etna 
is close to the sea ; so is Vesuvius ; Teneriffe is very near the 
African coast ; Mount Erebus is on the edge of the great Antartic 
continent. 

Out of 225 volcanoes which are known to be in actual eruption 
over the whole earth within the last 150 years, I remember only 
a single instance of one more than 320 miles from the sea, and 
that is on the edge of the Caspian, the largest of the inland seas 
— I mean Mount Demawend in Persia. 

Suppose from this, or any other cause, a crack to take place in 
the crust of the earth. Don't imagine that the melted matter 
below will simply ooze up quietly, as water does from under an 
ice-crack. No such thing. There is an element in the case we 
have not considered ; steam and condensed gases. We all know 
what takes place in a high pressure steam-boiler, with what violence 
the contents escape, and what havoc takes place. 



AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 283 

Now there is no doubt tliat among tlie minerals of the subterra- 
nean world, there is water in abundance, and sulphur, and many other 
vaporizable substances, all kept subdued and repressed by the 
enormous pressure. Let this pressure be relieved, and forth they 
rush, and the nearer they approach the surface the more they 
expand, and the greater is the explosive force they acquire ; till at 
length, after more or fewer preparatory shocks, each accompanied 
with progressive weakening of the overlying strata, the surface 
finally breaks up, and forth rushes the imprisoned power, with all 
the awful violence or a volcanic eruption. 

Certainly a volcano does seem to be a very bad neighbor ; 
and yet it affords a compensation in the extraordinary richness of 
the volcanic soil, and the fertilizing quality of the ashes thrown 
out. The flanks of Somma (the exterior crater of Vesuvius) are 
covered with vineyards producing wonderful wine, and whoever 
has visited Naples, will not fail to be astonished at the productive- 
ness of volcanized territory as contrasted with the barrenness of 

the limestone rocks borderins on it. 
t ^ 

THREE CROPS AT ONCE. 

There. you will see the amazing sight (as an English farmer 
would call it) of a triple crop growing at once on the same soil ; a 
vineyprd, an orchard, and a cornfield all in one. A magnificent 
wheat crop, five or six feet high, overhung with clustering grape- 
vines swinging from one apple or pear tree to another in the most 
luxuriant festoons ! When I visited Somma, to see the country 
where the celebrated wine, the Lacryma Christi, is grown, it was 
the festival of Madonna del Arco. Her church was crowded to 
suffocation with a hot and dusty assemblage of the peasantry. 
The fine impalpable volcanic dust was everywhere ; in your eyes, 
in your mouth, begriming every pore ; and there I saw what I 
shall never forget. Jammed among the crowd, I felt something 
jostling ray legs. 

Looking down, and the crowd making way, I beheld a line 
of worshipers crawling on their hands and knees from the door of 
the church to the altar, licking the dusty pavement all the way 



284 AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 

with their tongues, positively applied to the ground and no mis- 
take. No trifling dose of LacrN-ma would be required to wash 
down what the}- must have swallowed on that journey, and I have 
no doubt it was administered pretty copiously after the penance 
Mas over. 

Now I come to consider the manner in which an earthquake 
^s propagated from place to place ; how it travels, in short. It 
runs along the earth precisely in the same manner, and according 
to the same mechanical laws as a wave along the sea, or rather as 
the waves of sound run along the air, but quicker. 

The earthquake which destroyed Lisbon ran out from thence, 
as from a centre, in all directions, at a rate averaging about twent}'- 
miles per minute, as far as could be gathered from a comparison 
of the time of its occurrence at different places ; but there is 
little doubt that it must have been retarded by having to traverse 
all sorts of ground, for a blow or shock of any description is con- 
veyed through the substance on which it is delivered with the 
rapidit}^ of sound in that substance. 

SOUND CONVEYED BY WATER. 

Perhaps it may be new to many to be told that sound is con- 
vej^ed b}' water, by stone, by iron, and indeed, by everything, and 
at a diff'erent rate for each. In air it travels at the rate of about 
1 140 feet per second, or about thirteen miles a minute. In water 
much faster, more than four times as fast (4700 feet). In iron ten 
times as fast (11,400 feet), or about 130 miles in a minute, so that 
a blow delivered endways at one end of an iron rod, 130 miles 
long, would only reach the other after a lapse of a minute, and a 
pull at one end of an iron wire of that length, would require a 
minute before it would be felt at the other. 

But the substance of the earth through which the shock is 
conveyed is not only far less elastic than iron, but it does not 
form a coherent, connected body ; it is full of interruptions, cracks, 
loose materials, and all of these tend to deaden and retard the 
shock ; and putting together all the accounts of all the earth- 
quakes that have been exactly observed, their rate of travel may 



AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES, 2«6 

be taken to vary from as low as twelve or thirteen miles a minute 
to seventy or eighty ; but perhaps the low velocities arise from 
oblique waves. 

The way, then, that we ma}^ conceive an earthquake to travel 
is this — I shall take the case which is most common, when the 
motion of the ground to-and-fro is horizontal. How far each par- 
ticular spot on the surface of the ground is actuall}^ pushed from 
its place there is no way of ascertaining, since all the surrounding 
objects receive the same impulse almost at the same instant of 
time, but there are many indications that it is often several 

yards. 

GROUND SMITTEN BY TREES. 

In the earthquake of Cutch, which I have mentioned, trees 
were seen to flog the ground with their branches, which proves 
that their stems must have been jerked suddenly away for some 
considerable distance and as suddenly pushed back ; and the same 
conclusion follows from the sudden rise of the water of lakes on 
the side where the shock reaches them, and its fall on the opposite 
side ; the bed of the lake has been jerked away for a certain dis- 
tance from under the water and pulled back. 

Now, suppose a row of sixty persons, standing a mile apart 
from each other, in a straight line, in the direction in which the 
shock travels ; at a rate, we will suppose, of sixty miles per 
minute ; and let the ground below the first get a sudden and 
violent shove, carrying it a yard in the direction of the next. 
Since this shock will not reach the next till after the lapse of one 
second of time, it is clear that the space between the two will be 
shortened by a yard, and the ground — that is to sa}', not the mere 
loose soil on the surface, but the whole mass of solid rock below, 
down to an unknown depth — compressed, or driven into a 
smaller space. 

It is this compression that carries the shock forwards. The 
elastic force of the rocky matter, like a coiled spring acts both 
ways ; it drives back the first man to his old place, and shoves the 
second a yard nearer the third, and so on. Instead of men place 
a row o'tall buildings, or columns, and they will tumble down iu 



286 AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 

successiou, the base fl3'iug fonvards, and leaving the top behind 
to drop on the soil on the side from which the shock came. 

This is just what has happened in Messina in the great Catlab-- 
rian earthquake. As the shock ran along the ground, the houses 
of the Faro were seen to topple down in succession ; beginning 
at one end and running on to the other, as if a succession of mines 
had been sprung. In the earthquake in Cutch, a sentinel stand- 
ing at one end of a long straight line of wall, saw the wall bow 
for^vard and recover itself; v^*- aV :-. • once, but with a swell like a 
wave running all along it with immense rapidit}'. 

In this case it is evident that the earthquake wave must have 
its front oblique to the direction of the wall (just as an obliquely- 
held \ule runs along the edge of a page of paper while it advances, 
like a wave of the sea, perpendicularly to its own length). 

CONCERNING EXTINCT VOLCANOES. 

In reference to extinct volcanoes, I may just mention that any 
one who wishes to see some of the finest specimens in Europe may 
do so b}' making a couple of days' railway travel to Clermont, in the 
department of the Pu3'-de-Dome in France. There he will find a 
magnificent series of volcanic cones, fields of ashes, streams of 
lavas, and basaltic terraces of platforms, proving the volcanic 
action to have been continued for countless ages before the present 
surface of the earth was formed; and all so clear that he who runs 
ma}'- read their lesson. There can there be seen a configuration of 
surface quite resembling what telescopes show in the most volcanic 
districts of the moon. Let not my hearers be startled ; half the 
moon s face is covered with unmistakable craters of extinct 
volcanoes. 

Many of the lavas of Auvergne and the Puj'-de-Dome are 
basaltic ; that is, consisting of columns placed close together ; 
and some of the cones are quite complete, and covered with loose 
ashes and cinders, just as Vesuvius is at this hour. 

In the study of these vast and awful phenomena we are 
brought in contact with those immense and rude powers of nature 
which seem to conve}^ to the imagination the impress of brute 



AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 287 

force and lawless violence ; but it is not so. Sucli an idea is not 
more derogatory to the wisdom and benevolence that prevails 
throughout all the scheme of creation than it is in itself erroneous. 
In their wildest paroxysms the rage of the volcano and the earth- 
quake is subject to great and immutable laws : they feel the 
bridle and obey it. 

The volcano bellows forth its pent-up overplus of energy 
and sinks into long and tranquil repose. The earthquake rolls 
awa}^, and indnstr}^, that balm which nature knows how to shed 
over every wound, effaces its traces, and festoons its ruins with 
flowers. There is mighty and rough work to be accomplished, 
and it cannot be done by gentle means. It seems, no doubt, terri- 
ble, awful, perhaps harsh, that twenty or thirty thousand lives 
should be swept away in a moment by a sudden and unforeseen 
calamity ; but we must remember that sooner or later every one of 
those lives must be called for, and it is by no means the most 
sudden end that is the most afllictive. 

NATURE'S TREMENDOUS ENERGIES. 

It is well too that we should contemplate occasionally, if it 
were onh'- to teach us hnmilit}^ and submission, the immense ener- 
gies which are everywhere at work in maintaining the system of 
nature we see going on so smoothly and tranquilly around us, and 
of which these furious outbreaks, after all, are but minute, and 
for the moment unbalanced surpluses in the great account. The 
energy requisite to overthrow a mountain is as a drop in the ocean 
compared with that which holds it in its place, and makes it a 
mountain, Chemistr}- tells us that the forces constantly in action 
to maintain a single grain of water in its habitual state, when 
only partially and sparingly let loose in the form of electricity, 
would manifest themselves as a powerful flash of lightning. 

And we learn from optical science that in even the smallest 
element of every material body, nay, even in what we call empty 
space, there are forces in perpetual action to which even such 
energies sink into insignificance. Yet, amid all this, nature 
iolds her even course: the flowers blossom; animals enjoy theii 



288 AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 

brief span of existence ; and man has leisure and opportunity to 
contemplate and adore, secure of the watchful care which provides 
for his well-being at every instant that he is permitted to remain 
on earth. 

The first great earthquake of which any very distinct knowl- 
edge has reached us is that which occurred in the year 63 after 
our Saviour, which produced great destruction in the neighbor- 
hood of Vesuvius, and shattered the cities of Pompeii and Hercu- 
laneum upon the Bay of Naples, though it did not destroy them. 
This earthquake is chiefly remarkable as having been the fore- 
runner and the warning (if that warning could have been under- 
stood) of the first eruption of Vesuvius on record, which followed 
sixteen years afterwards in the year 79. 

DID NOT KNOW IT WAS A VOLCANO. 

Before that time none of the ancients had any notion of its 
being a volcano, though Pompeii itself is paved with its lava. 
The crater was probably filled, or at least the bottom occupied, by 
a lake ; and we read of it as the stronghold of the rebel chief 
Spartacus, who, when lured there by the Roman army, escaped 
with his followers by clambering up the steep sides by the help 
of the wild vines that festooned them. The ground since the first 
earthquake in 63 had often been shaken by slight shocks, when 
at length, in August 79, they became more numerous and violent, 
and, on the night preceding the eruption, so tremendous as to 
threaten everything with destruction. 

A morning of comparative repose succeeded, and the terrified 
inhabitants of those devoted towns no doubt breathed more freely, 
and hoped the worst was over, when, about one o'clock in the 
afternoon, the Elder Pliny, who was stationed in command of the 
Roman fleet at Misenum in full view of Vesuvius, beheld a 
huge black cloud ascending from the mountain, which, " rising 
slowly always higher," at last spread out aloft like the head of 
one of those picturesque flat-topped pines which form such an 
ornament of the Italian landscape. 

The meaning of such a phenomenon was to Pliny and to 



AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 



289 



everyone a mystery. We know now too well what it imports, 
and they were not long left in donbt. From that cloud descended 




TERRIFIC ERUPTION OF THE GREAT CRATER OF VESUVIUS. 

Stones, ashes, and pumice ; and the cloud itself lowered down 

upon the surrounding country, involving land and sea in profound 

darkness, pierced by flashes of fire more vivid than lightning. 
19-s. F. 



290 AMAZING PHENOMENA OF VOLCANOES. 

These, with the volumes of ashes that began to eucuinber 
the soil, and which covered the sea with floating pumice-stone ; 
the constant hea\-ing of the ground ; and the sudden recoil of the 
sea, form a picture which is wonderfully well described by the 
the Younger Plinv. His uncle, animated by an eager desire to 
know what was ooiuo- on, and to afford aid to the inhabitants of 
the towns, made sail for the nearest point of the coast and landed ; 
but was instanth' enveloped in the dense sulphureous vapor that 
swept down from the mountain, and perished miserably. 

It does not seem that any lava flowed on that occasion. 
Pompeii was buried under the ashes ; Herculaneum by a torrent 
of mud, probably the contents of the crater, ejected at the first 
explosion. This was most fortunate. We owe to it the preserva- 
tion of some of the most wonderful remains of antiquity. For it 
is not 3-et much more than a century ago that, in digging a well at 
Portici near Naples, the Theatre of Herculaneum was discovered, 
some sixty feet under ground, — then houses, baths, statues, and, 
most interesting of all, a library full of books ; and those books 
still legible, and among them the ^\'ritiugs of some ancient 
authors which had never before been met with, but which have 
now been read, copied, and published, while hundreds and 
hundreds, I am sorry to say, still remain unopened. 

Pompeii was not buried so deep ; the walls of some of the 
buildings appeared among the modern vineyards, and led to exca- 
vations which were easy, the ashes being light and loose. And 
there you now may walk through the streets, enter the houses 
and find the skeletons of their inmates, some in the very act of 
trying to escape. Nothing can be more strange and striking. 

Since that time Vesuvius has been frequently, but very 
irregularlv, in eruption. The next after Pompeii was in the year 
202, imder Severus, and in 472 occurred an eruption so tremendous 
that all Europe was covered by the ashes, and even Constantinople 
thrown into alarm. This may seem to savor of the marvelous, 
but before I have done I hope to show that it is not beyond what 
we know of the power of existing volcanoes. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Great Volcanic Eruptions in ]\Iany Parts of the World. 
Story of IMt. Etna. — Convulsions in South America 
AND Elsewhere. 

T SHALIy not, of course, occupy attentiou with a liistorj^ of Vesu- 
^ vius, but pass at ouce to the eruption of 1779 — one of the 
most interesting- on record, from the excellent account given of 
it by Sir William Hamilton, who was then resident at Naples as 
our Minister, and watched it throughout with the eye of an artist 
as well as the scrutiny of a philosopher. 

In 1767, there had been a considerable eruption, during M-liich 
Pliny's account of the great pine-like, flat-topped, spreading mass 
of smoke had been superbly exemplified ; extending over the 
Island of Capri, which is twenty-eight miles from Vesuvius. The 
showers of ashes, the lava currents, the lightnings, thunderings, 
and earthquakes were very dreadful ; but the}- were at once 
brought to a close when the mob insisted that the head of St. 
Januarius should be brought out and shown to the mountain ; and 
when this was done, all the uproar ceased on the instant, and 
Wsuvius became as quiet as a lamb ! 

He did not continue so, however, and it would have been well 
for Naples if the good Saint's head could have been pennancntl}^ 
fixed in some conspicuous place in sight of the hill — for from 
that time till the year 1779 it never was quiet. 

In the spring of that year it began to pour out lava; and on 
one occasion, when Sir William Hamilton approached too near, 
the running stream was on the point of surrouudinghim ; and the 
sulphureous vapor cut off his retreat, so that his onlv mode of 
escape was to w^alk across the lava, which, to his astonishment, 
and, no doubt, to his great jo}^, he found accompanied with no 
difficulty, and with no more inconvenience than what proceeded 
from the radiation of beat on his legs and feet from the scoriae 
and cinders with which the ext:rnal crust of the lava was loaded; 

291 



292 ERUPTIONS IK MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. ^ 

aud which in great measure intercepted and confined the glowing 
heat of the ignited mass below. 

In such cases, and when cooled down to a certain point, the 
motion of the lava-stream is slow and creeping ; rather rolling- 
over itself than flowing like a river ; the top becoming the bottom, 
owing to the toughness of the half-congealed crust. When it 
issues, however, from am^ accessible vent, it is described as per- 
fectly liquid, of an intense white heat, and spouting or welling 
forth with extreme rapidity. 

So Sir Humphrev Davy described it in an eruption at which 
he was present ; and so Sir William Hamilton, in the eruption we 
are now concerned with, saw it " bubbling up violently " from 
one of its fountains on the slope of the volcano, " with a hissing 
and crackling noise, like that of an artificial firework ; and fonn- 
ing, bv the continual splashing up of the vitrified matter, a sort 
of dome or arch over the crevice from which it issued," which was 
all, internally, "red-hot like a heated oven.'' 

RUMBLING NOISES AND EXPLOSIONS. 

However, as time went on, this quiet mode of getting rid of 
its contents would no longer suffice, and the usual SA^mptoms of 
more violent action — rumbling noises and explosions within the 
mountain ; puifs of smoke from its crater, and jets of red-hot stones 
and ashes — continued till the end of July, when they increased 
to such a degree as to exhibit at night the most beautiful firework 
imaginable. 

The eruption came to its climax from the 5th to the loth of 
August, on the former of which days, after the ejection of an 
enormous volume of white clouds, piled like bales of the whitest 
cotton, in a mass exceeding four times the height and size of the 
mountain itself; the lava began to overflow the rim of the crater, 
and stream in torrents down the steep slope of the cone. This 
was continued till the Sth, when the great mass of the lava would 
seem to have been evacuated, and no longer repressing by its 
weight the free discharge of the imprisoned gases, allowed what 
remaiued to be ejected in fountains of fire, carried up to an 



ERL'ITIONS IX MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 



29n 



immense lieiglit in die air. The description of one of tliese I 
must give in the pictnresque and vivid words of Sir William 
Hamilton hiinself. 

" About nine o'clock," he says, on Sunday the 8th of August, 
" there was a loud report, which shook the houses at Portici and 




NAPLES. SHOWING MOUNT VESUVIUS IN THE DISTANCE. 

its neighborhood to such a degree as to alarm the inhabitants an^l 
drive them out into the streets. ]\Iany windows were broken, and 
as I have since seen, walls cracked by the concussion of the air 
from that explosion. In one instant a fountain of liquid trans- 
parent fire began to rise, and gradually increasing, arrived at so 
amazing a height as to strike eveiy one who beheld it with the 
most awful astonishment. I shall scarce! v be credited when I 



294 ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 

assure you that, to the best of my judgment, the height of this 
stupendous column of fire could not be less than three times that 
of Vesuvius itself; which, you kuow, rises perpendicularly near 
3,700 feet above the level of the sea." (The height of my own 
measurement in 1824 is 3,920 feet.) 

"Puffs of smoke, as black as can possibly be imagined, 
suceeded one another hastily, and accompanied the red-hot, 
transparent, and liquid lava, interrupting its splendid brightness* 
here and there b}^ patches of the darkest hue. Within these 
puffs of smoke, at the very moment of their emission from the 
crater, I could perceive a bright but pale electrical fire playing 
about in zigzag lines. 

THROWN UPWARD THOUSANDS OF FEET. 

" The liquid lava, mixed with scoriae and stones, after having 
mounted, I veritably believe at least 10,000 feet, falling perpen- 
dicularly on Vesuvius, covered its whole cone, part of that of 
Somma, and the valle^^ between them. The falling matter being 
nearly as vivid and inflamed as that which was continuall}' issuing 
fresh from the crater, formed with it one complete bod}^ of fire, 
which could not be less than two miles and a half in breadth, and 
of the extraordinar}^ height above mentioned ; casting a heat to 
the distance of at least six miles around it. 

"The brushwood of the mountain of Somma was soon in flame, 
which, being of a different tint from the deep red of the matter 
thrown out from the volcano, and from the silvery blue of the 
electrical fire, still added to the contrast of this most extraordinary 
scene. After the column of fire had continued in full force for 
nearly half an hour, the eruption ceased at once, and Vesuvius 
remained sullen and silent." 

The lightnings here described arose evidently in part from 
the chemical activit}^ of gaseous decompositions going forward, in 
part to the friction of steam, and in part from the still more 
intense friction of the dust, stones and ashes encountering one 
another in the air, in analog}^ to the electric manifestations which 
accompany the dust storms in India. 



ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 29^5 

To give an idea of tlie state of the inliabitants of tlie country 
when an explosion is going on, I will make one other extract: — 
"The mountain of Somma, at the foot of which Ottaiano is situ- 
ated, hides Vesuvius from its sight, so that, until the eruption 
became considerable, it was not visible to them. On Sunday night, 
when the noise increased and the fire began to appear above the 
mountain of Somma, many of the inhabitants of the town flew to 
the churches, and others were preparing to quit the town, when a 
sudden violent report was heard, soon after which they found them- 
selves involved in a thick cloud of smoke and minute ashes; a 
horrid clashing noise was heard in the air, and presently fell a 
deluge of stones and large scoriae, some of which scoriae were of 
the diameter of seven or eight feet, and must have weighed more 
than one hundred pounds before they were broken by their falls, 
as some of the fragments of them which I picked up in the streets 
still weighed upw^ards of sixty pounds. 

GLEAMING SPARKS OF FIRE. 

" When the large vitrified masses either struck against each 
other in the air or fell on the ground, they broke in many pieces, 
and covered a large space around them with vivid sparks of fire, 
which communicated their heat to everything that was combustible. 
In an instant the town and country about it was on fire in many 
parts ; for in the vineyards there were several straw huts which 
had been erected for the watchmen of the grapes, all of which 
were burnt. A great magazine of wood in the heart of the town 
was all in a blaze, and had there been much wind, the flames must 
have spread universally, and all the inhabitants would hav« 
infallibly been burnt in their houses, for it was impossible for them 
to stir out. 

"Some who attempted it with pillows, tables, chairs, tops of wint 
casks, etc., on their heads, were either knocked down or driven 
back to their close quarters under arches or in the cellars of the 
houses. Many were wounded, but only tw^o persons have died of 
the wounds they received from this dreadful volcanic shower. To 
add to the horror of the scene, incessant volcanic lightning was 



2% vKUl'TIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 

writhing about the black cloud that surrounded them, and the 
sulphurous smell and heat would scarcely allow them to draw their 
breath." 

The next volcano I shall introduce is ^tna, the grandest of 
all our European volcanoes. I ascended it in 1824, and found its 
height by a very careful barometric measurement to be 10,772 
feet above the sea, which, by the way, agrees within some eight or 
ten feet with Admiral Smyth's measurement 

The scenery of JEtna. is on the grandest scale. Ascending 
from Catania you skirt the stream of lava which destroyed a part 
of that city in 1669, and which ran into the sea, forming a jetty 
or breakwater that now gives Catania what it never had before, 
the advantage of a harbor. There it lies as hard, rugged, barren, 
and fresh-looking as if it had flowed but yesterday. In many 
places it is full of huge caverns ; great air-bubbles, into which one 
may ride on horseback (at least large enough) and which com- 
municate, in a succession of horrible vaults, where one might 
wander and lose one's self without hope of escape. 

BRISTLING WITH SMALL VOLCANOES. 

Higher up, near Nicolosi, is tlie spot from which that lava 
flowed. It is marked b}' two volcanic cones, each of them a con- 
siderable mountain, called the Monti Rossi, rising 300 feet above 
the slope of the hill, and which were thrown up on that occasion. 
Indeed, one of the most remarkable features of ^tna is that of 
its flanks bristling over with innumerable smaller volcanoes. For 
the height is so great that the lava now scarcely ever rises to the 
top of the crater ; for before that, its immense weight breaks 
through at the sides. 

In one of the eruptions that happened in the early part of the 
century, I forget the date, but I think it was in 18 19, and which 
was described to me on the spot by an eye-witness — the Old Man 
of the Mountain, Mario Gemellaro — the side of ^tna was rent by 
a great fissure or crack, beginning near the top, and throwing out 
jets of lava from openings fourteen or fifteen in number all the 
way down, so as to form a row of fiery fountains j'ising from dif- 



ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 21^7 

ferent levels, aud all ascending nearh' to the same height : there- 
by proving them all to have originated in the great internal cis. 
tern as it were, the crater being filled np to the top level. 

From the snnimit of ^-Etna extends a view of extraordinary 
magnificence. The whole of Sicily lies at your feet, aud far 
beyond it are seen a string of lesser volcanoes; the Lipari Islands, 
between Sicily and the Italian coast ; one of which, Stromboli, is 
always in eruption, unceasingly throwing up ashes, smoke, aud 
liquid fire. 

But I must not linger on the summit of ^^tna. We will now 
take a flight thence, all across Europe, to Iceland — a wonderful 
land of frost and fire. It is full of volcanoes, one of which, Hecla, 
has been twenty-two times in eruption within the last 800 years. 
Besides Hecla, there are five others, from which in the same 
period twenty eruptions have burst forth, luaking aboutone every 
twenty ^-ears. The most formidable of these was that which hap- 
pened in 1783, a year also memorable as that of the terrible earth- 
quake in Calabria. In ]\Iay of that year, a bluish fog was observed 
over the mountain called Skaptur Jokul, and the neighborhood 
was shaken by earthquakes. 

DARKENED THE WHOLE COUNTRY. 

After a while a great pillar of smoke was observed to ascend 
from it, which darkened the whole surrounding district, and 
descended in a whirlwind of ashes. On the loth of May, innum- 
erable fountains of fire were seen shooting up through the ice and 
snow which covered the mountain ; and the principal river, called 
the Skapta, after rolling down a flood of foul and poisonous water, 
disappeared. 

Two days after, a torrent of lava poured down into the bed 
which the river had deserted. The river had run in a ravine, 600 
feet deep and 200 broad. This the lava entirely filled ; and not only 
so, but it overflowed the surrounding country, and ran into a great 
lake, from which it instantly expelled the Mater in an explosion 
of steam. When the lake was fairly filled, the lava again over 
flowed and divided into two streams, one of which covered some 



298 ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 

ancient lava fields ; the other re-entered tlie bed of tlie Skapta 
lower down ; and presented the astonnding site of a cataract of 
liquid fire pouring over what was formerly the waterfall of 
Stapafoss. 

This was the greatest eruption on record in Europe. It lasted 
in its violence till the end of August, and closed with a violent 
earthquake ; but for nearl}'- the whole year a canopy of cinder- 
laden cloud hung over the island ; the Faroe Islands, na}^, even 
Shetland and the Orkneys, were deluged with the ashes ; and vol- 
canic dust and a preternatural smoke, which obscured the sun, 
covered all Europe as far as the Alps, over which it could not rise. 

GREAT DESTRUCTION OF LIFE. 

It has been surmised that the great Fireball of August i8, 
1783, which traversed all England, and the Continent, from the 
North Sea to Rome, by far the greatest ever known (for it was 
more than half a mile in diameter), was somehow connected with 
the electric excitement of the upper atmosphere produced by this 
enormous discharge of smoke and ashes. The destruction of life 
in Iceland was frightful ; 9000 men, 11,000 cattle, 28,000 horses 
and 190,000 sheep perished : mostly by suffocation. The lava 
ejected has been computed to have amounted in volume to more 
than twenty cubic miles. 

We shall now proceed to still more remote regions, and describe, 
in as few words as may be, tw^o immense eruptions — one in Mexico, 
in the year 1759; the other in the Island of Sumbawa in the 
Eastern Archipelago, in 18 15. 

I ought to mention, by way of preliminary, that almost the 
whole line of coast of South and Central America, from Mexico 
southwards as far as Valparaiso — that is to say, nearl}^ the w^hole 
chain of the Andes — is one mass of volcanoes. In Mexico and 
Central America there are two and twenty, and in Quito, Peru, and 
Chili, six and twenty more, in activity ; and nearly as many more 
extinct ones, any one of which ma}^ at any moment break out 
afresh. This does not prevent the country from being inhabited 
fertile and well cultivated. 



ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 299 

Well : in a district of Mexico celebrated for tlie growth of 
tlie finest cotton, between two streams called Cuitimba and San 
Pedro, wbich furnished water for irrigation, lay the farm and 
homestead of Don Pedro de Jurullo, one of the richest and most 
fertile properties in that country. He was a thriving man and 
lived in comfort as a large proprietor, little expecting the mischief 
that was to befall him. 

In June 1759, however, a subterranean noise was heard in this 
peaceful region. Hollow sounds of the most alarming nature 
were succeeded by frequent earthquakes, succeeding one another 
for fifty or sixty days ; but they died away, and in the beginning 
of September everything seemed to have returned to its usual 
state of tranquillity. Suddenly, on the night of the 28th of Sep- 
tember, the horrible noises recommenced. All the inhabitants 
fled in terror, and the whole tract of ground, from three to four 
square miles in extent, rose up in the form of a bladder to a height 
of upwards of 500 feet. 

IMMENSE TORRENT OF BOILING MUD. 

Flames broke forth over a surface of more than half a square 
league, and through a thick cloud of ashes illuminated by this 
ghastly light, the refugees, who had ascended a mountain at some 
distance, could see the ground as if softened by the heat, and 
swelling and sinking like an agitated sea. Vast rents opened in 
the earth, into which the two rivers I mentioned precipitated 
themselves, but so far from quenching the fires, only seemed to 
make them more furious. Finally, the whole plain became 
covered with an immense torrent of boiling mud, out of which 
sprang thousands of little volcanic cones called Hornitos, or 
ovens. 

But the most astonishing part of the whole was the opening 
of a chasm vomiting out fire, and red-hot stones and ashes, which 
accumulated so as to form " a range of six large mountain masses, 
one of which is upwards of 1600 feet in height above the old 
level, and which is now known as the volcano of Jurullo. It is 
continually burning, and for a whole year continued to throw up 



J^OO ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 

an immense quantity of ashes, lava and fragments of rock. Tlie 
roofs of houses at the town or village of Queretaro, upwards of 
140 miles distant, were covered with the ashes. 

The two rivers have again appeared, issuing at some distance 
from among the hornitos, but no longer as sources of wealth and 
fertility, for they are scalding hot, or at least were so when Baron 
Humboldt visited them several 3'ears after the event. The ground 
even then retained a violent heat, and the hornitos were pouring 
forth columns of steam twenty or tliirty feet high, with a rum- 
bling noise like that of a steam boiler. 

The island of Sumbawa is one of that curious line of islands 
which links on Australia to the southeastern corner of Asia. It 
forms, with one or two smaller volcanic islands, a prolongation of 
Java, at that time, in 18 15, a British possession, and under the 
government of Sir Stamford Raffles, to whom we owe the account 
of the eruption, and who took a great deal of pains to ascertain 
all the particulars. Java itself, I should observe, is one rookery- 
of volcanoes, and so are all the adjoining islands in that long 
crescent-shaped line I refer to. 

EXTRAORDINARY ERUPTION. 

On the island of Sumbawa is the volcano of Tomboro, which 
broke out into eruption on the 5th of April in that 3'ear, and I 
can hardly do better than quote the account of it in Sir Stamford 
Raffles' own words : 

" Almost every one," sa3's this writer, " is acquainted with 
the intermitting convulsions of Etna and Vesuvius as they 
appear in the descriptions of the poet, and the authentic accounts 
of the naturalist ; but the most extraordinary of them can bear 
no comparison, in point of duration and force, with that of Mount 
Tomboro in the island of Sumbawa ! This eruption extended 
perceptible evidences of its existence over the whole of the 
Molucca Islands, over Java, a considerable portion of the Celebes, 
Sumatra and Borneo, to a circumference of 1000 .'Statute miles 
from its centre" (i. e., to 1000 miles distance), "by tremulous 
motions and the report of explosions. 



ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 801 

" In a short time tlie whole mountain near the Sang'ir 
appeared like a body of liquid fire, extending itself in every direc- 
tion. The fire and columns of flame continued to rage with 
unabated fury until the darkness, caused by the quantity of falling 
matter, obscured it about 8 P. M. Stones at this time fell \'ery 
thick at Sang'ir, some of them as large as two fists, but generally 
not larger than walnuts. Between 9 and 10 P. M. ashes began 
to fall, and soon after a violent whirlwind ensued, which blew down 
nearly every house of Sang'ir, carrying the roofs and light parts 
away with it. 

HUGE TREES TORN UP. 

" In the port of Sang'ir, adjoining Sumbawa, its effects were 
much more violent, tearing up by the roots the largest trees, and 
carrying them into the air, together with men, horses, cattle, and 
whatsoever came within its influence. This will account for the 
immense number of floating trees seen at sea. The sea rose nearly 
twelve feet higher than it had ever been known to do before, and 
completely spoiled the only small spots of rice laud in Sang'ir^ 
sweeping away houses and everything within its reach. The 
whirlwind lasted about an hour. No explosions were heard until 
the whirlwind had ceased at about 11 P. M. From midnight 
till the evening of the nth they continued without intermi^^c^ou ; 
after that time their violence moderated and they were heard only 
at intervals ; but the explosions did not cease entirely until the 
15th of July. 

" Of all the villages round Tomboro, Tempo, containing 
about forty inhabitants, is the only one remaining. In Pekate 
no vestige of a house is left; twenty-six of the people, who were 
at Sumbawa at the time, are the whole of the population who 
have escaped. Froiu the best inquiries, there were certainly not 
fewer than 12,000 individuals in Tomboro and Pekate at the time 
of the eruption, of whom five or six survive. 

" The trees and herbage of every description along the whole 
of the north and west of the peninsula, have been completely 
destroyed, with the exception of a high point of land near the spot 



302 ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 

where the village of Toinboro stood. At Sang'ir, it is added, the 
famine occasioned by this event was so extreme, that one of the 
rajah's own daughters died of starvation. 

" I have seen it computed that the quantity of ashes and lava 
vomited forth in this awful eruption would have formed three 
mountains the size of Mont Blanc, the highest of the Alps ; and 
if spread over the surface of Germany, would have covered the 
whole of it two feet deep. The ashes did actually cover the whole 
island of Tombock, more than one hundred miles distant, to that 
depth, and 44,000 persons there perished by starvation, from the 
total destruction of all vegetation. 

LAKE OF MOLTEN LAVA. 

"The mountain Kirauiah, in the island of Owyhee, one of the 
Sandwich Isles, exhibits the remarkable phenomenon of a lake of 
molten and very liquid lava always filling the bottom of the 
crater, and always in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and 
fro its fiery surge and flaming billows — yet with this it is content, 
for it would seem that at least for a long time past there has been 
no violent outbreak so as to make what is generally understood by 
a volcanic eruption. 

" Volcanic eruptions are almost alwaj'S^ preceded by earth- 
quakes, by which the beds of rock, that overlie and keep down the 
struggling powers beneath, are dislocated and cracked, till at last 
they give way, and the strain is immediately relieved. It is chiefly 
when this does not happen, when the force below is sufftcient to 
heave up and shake the earth, but not to burst open the crust, 
and give vent to the lava and gases, that the most destructive 
effects are produced. 

"The great earthquake of November i, 1755, which destroyed 
Lisbon, was an instance of this kind, and was one of the greatest, 
if not the very greatest on record ; for the concussion extended 
over all Spain and Portugal — indeed, over all Europe, and even 
into Scotland — over North Africa, where in one town in Morocco 
8000 or 10,000 people perished. Nay, its effects extended even 
across the Atlantic to Madeira, where it was very violent ; and to 



ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 303 

the West Indies. The most striking feature about this earth- 
quake was its extreme suddenness. 

" iVll was going on quite as usual in Lisbon the morn- 
ing of that memorable day, the weather fine and clear, and 
nothing whatever to give the population of that great capital 
the least suspicion of mischief All at once, at twenty minutes 
before lo A. M., a noise was heard like the rumbling of car- 
riages under ground; it increased rapidly and became a suc- 
cession of deafening explosions like the loudest cannon. Then 
a shock, which, as described by one writing from the spot, 
seemed to last but the tenth part of a minute, and down came 
tumbling palaces, churches, theatres, and every large public edi- 
fice, and about a third or a fourth part of the dwelling houses. 

More shocks followed in succession, and in six minutes 
from the commencement 60,000 persons were cirushed in the ruins ! 
Here are the simple but expressive words of one J. Latham, 
who writes to his uncle in London. " I was on the river with one 
of my customers going to a village three miles off Presently 
the boat made a noise as if on the shore or landing, though then 
in the middle of the water. I asked my companion if he knew 
what was the matter. He stared at me, and looking at Lisbon, 
we saw the houses falling, which made him say, 'God bless us, it 
is an earthquake !' About four or five minutes after, the boat 
made a noise as before, and we saw the houses tumble down on 
both sides of the river." They then landed and made for a hill, 
whence they beheld the sea (which had at first receded and laid a 
great tract dry) come rolling in, in a vast mountain wave fifty or 
sixty feet high, on the land, and sweeping all before it. 

Three thousand people had taken refuge on a new stone quay 
just completed at great expense. In an instant it was turned 
topsy-turvy, and the whole quay, and every person on it, with ah 
the vessels moored to it, disappeared, and not a vestige of them 
ever appeared again. Where that quay stood, was afterwards 
found a depth of 100 fathoms (600 feet) of water. It happened t^ 
be a religious festival, and most of the population were assembled 
in the churches, which fell and crushed them. That no horror 



ri04 ERITPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 

iiiiglit be wanting, fires broke out in iuunmerable houses wbere 
wt)od-work had falleu ou the fires, aud much that the earthquake 
had spared was destroyed b}^ fire. 

"And then, too, broke forth that worst of all scourges> 
a lawless ruffian-like mob, who plundered, burned, and murdered in 
the midst of all that desolation and horror. The huge wave I 
have spoken of swept the whole coast of Spain and Portugal. Its 
swell and fall was ten or twelve feet at Madeira. It swept quite 
across the Atlantic, and broke on the shores of the West Indies. 
Ever}^ lake aud firth in England and Scotland was dashed for a 
moment out of its bed, the water not partaking of the sudden 
shove given to the land, just as when you splash a flat saucerful 
of water, the water dashes over ou the side from which the shock 
is given. 

One of the most curious incidents in this earthquake was its 
effect on ships far out at sea, which would lead us to suppose that 
the immediate impulse was in the nature of a violent blow or 
thrust upward, under the bed of the ocean. Thus it is recorded 
that this upward shock was so sudden and violent on a ship, at 
that time fort}- leagues from Cape St. Vincent, that the sailors ou 
deck wei'e tossed up into the air to a lieight of eighteen inches. 

MAINMAST SPLIT BY A BLOW. 

"So also, ou another occasion, in 1796, a British ship eleven 
miles from land near the Philippine Islands was struck upwards 
from below with such force as to unship and split up the main- 
mast. 

" Evidences of a similar sudden aud upward explosive action 
are of frequent occurrence among the extinct volcanoes < f 
Auvergne and the Vivarais, where in many instances the perfora- 
tion of the granitic beds which form the basis or substatum of the 
whole country appears to have been affected at a single blow, 
accompanied with little evidence of disturb luce of the surround- 
ing rocks — much in the same \va.y as a bullet will pass through a 
pane of glass without starring or shattering it. 

"In such cases it would seem as if water in a liquid state 



ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 305 

had suddenly been let in through a fissure upon a most intensely 
heated and molten mass beneath, producing a violent but local 
explosion so instantaneous as to break its way through the over- 
lying rocks, without allowing time for them to bend or crumple, 
and so displace the surrounding masses. 

"The same kind of upward bounding moveniement took place 
at Riobambo in Quito in the great earthquake of February 4, 
1797, which was connected with an eruption of the volcano of 
Tuuguragua. That earthquake extended in its greatest intensity 
over an oval space of 120 miles from south to north, and 60 from 
east to west, within which space ever}^ town and village was 
levelled with the ground ; but the total extent of surface shaken 
was upward of 500 miles in one direction (from Puna to Popayan), 
and 400 in the other. Ouero, Riobamba, and several other towns, 
were buried under fallen mountains, and in a very few minutes 
30,000 persons were destroyed. At Riobamba, how.ever, after the 
earthquake, a great number of corpses were found to have been 
tossed across a river, and scattered over the slope of a hill on the 

other side. 

EARTH SHAKING VIOLENTLY. 

"The frequency of these South American earthquakes is not 
more extraordinary than the duration of the shocks. Humboldt 
relates than on one occasion, when traveling on mule-back with his 
companion Bonpland, they were obliged to dismount in a dense 
forest, and throw themselves on the ground ; the earth being 
shaken uninterruptedly for upwards of a quarter of an hour 
with such violence that they could not keep their legs. 

"One of the most circumstantially described earthquakes on 
record is that which happened in Calabria on the 5th of February, 
1783 ; I should say began then, for it may be said to have lasted 
four years. In the 3'ear 1783, for instance, 949 shocks took place, 
of which 501 were great ones, and in 1784, 151 shocks were felt, 
ninety-eight of which were violent. The centre of action seemed 
to be under the towns of Monteleone and Oppido. 

" In a circle twenty-two miles in radius round Oppido every 
':own and village was destroyed within two minutes by the first 

2U' SiF, 



806 ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. 

shock, and Avitliin one of sevent\^ miles radius all were seriously 
shaken and niucli damage done. The whole of Calabria was 
affected, and even across the sea Messina was shaken, and a great 
part of Sicily. 

"There is no end of the capricious and out-of-the-way accidents 
and movements recorded in this Calabrian earthquake. The 
ground undulated like a ship at sea. People became actual}^ sea- 
sick, and to give an idea of the undulation (just as it happens 
at sea), the scud of the clouds before the wind seemed to be lit- 
fullv arrested during the pitching movement when it took place 
in the same direction and to redouble its speed in the reverse 

movement. 

HOUSES ENTOMBED. 

"At Oppido many houses were swallowed up bodily. Loose 
objects were tossed up several 3^ards into the air. The flagstones 
in some places were found after a severe shock all turned bottom 
upwards. Great fissures opened in the earth, and at Terra Nova 
a mass of rock 200 feet high and 400 feet in diameter traveled 
four miles down a ravine. All landmarks were removed, and the 
land itself, in some instances, with trees and hedges growing on it, 
carried bodih' awa}^ and set down in another place. 

" Altogether about 40,000 people perished b}' the earthquakes, 
and some 20,000 more of the epidemic diseases produced by want 
and the effluvia of the dead bodies. 

" Volcanoes occasionally break forth at the bottom of the sea, 
and, when this is the case, the result is usually the production of 
a new island. This, in mau}^ cases, disappears soon after it's 
formation, being composed of loose and incoherent materials 
w^hich easily yield to the destructive power of the waves. Such 
was the case with the Island of Sabrina, thrown up in iSii, off 
St. Alichael's, in the Azores, which disappeared almost as soon as 
formed, and in that of Pantellaria, on the Sicilian coast, which 
resisted longer, but was gradualh' washed into a shoal, and at 
length has, we believe, completely disappeared. 

" In numerous other instances, the cones of cinders and 
scoriae, once raised, have become compacted and bound together 



ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD, 307 

b}^ tlie effusion of lava, liardeniug into solid stone, and thus, 
becoming habitual volcanic vents, they continue to increase in 
height and diameter, and assume the importance of permanent 
volcanic islands. Such has been, doubtless, the history of those 
numerous insular volcanoes which dot the ocean in so mau}^ parts 
of the world such as Teneriffe, the Azores, Ascension, St. Helena, 
Tristan d'Acunha, etc. 

" In some cases the process has been witnessed from its com- 
mencement, as in that of two islands which arose in the Aleutian 
group connecting Kamschatka with North America, the one in 
1796, the other in 1814, and which both attained the elevation of 

3000 feet. 

VOLCANIC ACTION IN OCEANS. 

" Besides these evident instances of eruptive action, there is 
every reason to believe that enormous floods of lava have been, at 
various remote periods in the earth's history, poured forth at the 
bottom of the seas so deep as to repress, by the mere weight of 
water, all outbreak of steam, gas, or ashes ; and reposing perhaps 
for ages in a liquid state, protected from the cooling action of the 
water on their upper surface by a thick crust of congealed stony 
matter, to have assumed a perfect level ; and, at length, by slow 
cooling, taken on that peculiar columnar structure which we see 
produced in minature in starch by the contraction or shrinkage^ 
and consequent splitting, of the material in drying ; and resulting 
in those picturesque and singular landscape features called 
basaltic colonnades : when brought up to-day by sudden or gradual 
upheaval, and broken into cliffs and terraces by the action of 
waves, torrents, or weather. Those grand specimens of such col- 
onnades which Britain possesses in the Giant's Causeway of 
Antrim, and the cave of Fingal, in Staffa, for instance, are no 
doubt extreme outstanding portions of such avast submarine lava- 
flood which at some inconceivably remote epoch occupied the 
whole intermediate space ; affording the same kind of evidence of 
a former connection of the coasts of Scotland and Ireland as do 
the opposing chalk cliffs of Dover and Boulogne of the ancient con- 
nection of France with Britain. Here and there a small basaltic 



308 



ERUPTIONS IN MANY PARTS UF THE WORLD. 



island, such as that of Rathlin, remains to attest this former con- 
tinuity, and to recall to the contemplative mind that sublime 
antagonism between sudden violence and persevering effort, which 
the study of geology impresses in every form of repetition. 

''There exists a very general impression that earthquakes 
are preceded and ushered in by some kind of preternatural, and, 





NEAR VIEW OF A VOLCANIC CRATER IN SOUTH AMERICA. 

as it were, expectant calm in the elements ; as if to make the 
confusion and desolation they create the more impressive. The 
records of such visitations which we possess, however striking 
some particular cases may appear, by no means bear out this as a 
general fact, or go to indicate any particular phase of weather as 
preferentially accompanying their occurrence. 

"This does not prevent, however, certain conjunctures of 
atmospheric or other circumstances from exercising a determining 



EKUPTIOXS IN MANY PARTS OP^ THE WuRLD. 399 

influence on the times of their occurrence. According to the 
view we have taken of their origin (viz., the displacement of 
pressure, resulting in a state of strain in tlie strata at certain 
points, gradually increasing to the maximum they can bear with- 
out disruption), it is the last ounce which breaks the camel's back. 
Great barometrical fluctuation, accumulating atmospheric pressure 
for a time over the sea, and relieving it over the land ; an unusu- 
ally high tide, aided by the long-continued and powerful winds 
heaping up the water ; nay, even the tidal action of the sun and 
moon on the solid portion of the earth's crust — all these causes, 
for the moment combining, may very well suffice to determine 
the instant of fracture, when the balance between the opposing 
forces is on the eve of subversion. 

'* The last-mentioned cause may need a few words of expla- 
nation. The action of the sun and moon, though it cannot 
produce a tide in the solid crust of the earth, tends to do so, and, 
were it fluid, would produce it. It, therefore, in point of fact, 
does bring the solid portions of the earth's surface into a state 
alternately of strain and compression. 

"The effective part of their force, in the present case, is not 
that which aids to lift or to press the superficial matter (for that 
acting alike on the continents and on the bed of the sea, would 
have no influence), but that which tends to produce lateral dis- 
placement ; or what geometers call the tangential force. This 
of necessity brings the whole ring of the earth's surface, which 
at any instant has the acting luminal y on its horizon, into a 
state of strain ; and the whole area over which it is nearly ver- 
tical, into one of compression. We leave this point to be further 
followed out, but we cannot forbear remarking, that the great 
volcanic chains of the world have, in point of fact, a direction 
which this cause of disruption would tend rather to favor than 
to contravene. 



CHAPTER XX. 
Eruption of Etna in the Year 1S65. — Mutual Dependence 

OF ALL TeRRESTRL\L PHENOMENA. — SeA CoAST LiNE OF 

Volcanoes. — The Pacific *' Circle of Fire.'' 

T^HE Greek mythology', harmonizing in this respect with the 
^ ideas ot most nations which were acquainted with volcanoes, 
attributed to these mountains an origin altogether independent of 
the forces which are in action on the surface of the ground. Ac- 
cording to the A-iews of the Hellenes, water and fire were two dis- 
tinct elements, and each had its separate domain, its genii, and its 
gods. Xeptune reigTied over the sea ; it was he that unchained 
the storms and caused the waves to swell. The tritons followed 
in his traiu ; the n^-mphs, sirens, and marine monsters obeyed 
his orders, and in the mountain valleys, the solitary* naiads 
poured out to his honor the murmuring water from their urns. In 
the dark depth of unknown abysses was enthroned the gloomy 
Pluto ; at his side Vulcan ; surrounded by Cyclops, forged thun- 
derbolts at his resounding an\*il, and from their furnaces escaped 
all the flames and molten matter the appearance of which so 
appalled mankind. Between the gods of water and of fire there 
was nothing in common, except that both were the sons of Chronos, 
that is, of Time, which modifies every thing, which destroys and 
renews, and, by its incessant work of destruction, makes ready a 
place for the innumerable germs of ^-itality which crowd on the 
threshold of life. 

Even in our days, the common opinion is not much at vari- 
ance \Wth these mythological ideas, and volcanic phenomena are 
looked upon as events of a character altogether different from 
other facts of terrestrial vitality. The latter, the sudden changes 
of which are visible and easily to be observed, are i ustlv considered to 
be owing principally to the position of tlie earth in respect to the sun 
and the alternations of light and darkness, heat and cold, dr^mess 

and moisture, which necessarilv result. 
310 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRLA.L PHENOMENA. 811 

As regards voicaiioes, on tlie contrary, an order of eniirel}'- 
distinct facts is imagined, cansed by the gradnal cooling of the 
planet or the unequal tides of an ocean of lava and tire. Certainly, 
the eruptions of ashes and incandescent matter have not revealed 
the mystery of their formation, and in this respect numerous 
problems still remain unsolved by scientific men. Nevertheless, 
the facts already known warrant us in asserting that volcanic 
crises are connected, like all other planetary phenomena, with the 
geuerai causes which determine the continual changes of conti- 
nents and seas, the erosion of mountains, the courses of rivers, 
winds, and sionns, the movements of the ocean, and all the innum- 
erable modifications which are taking place on the globe. 

ORIGIN OF VOLCANOES. 

If, some day, we are to succeed in pointing out exactly and 
plainly liowvolcanoes likewise obey, either partialh' or completeh', 
tlie system of laws which govern the exterior of the globe, the first 
and most important requisite is to observe vdih the greatest care 
all the incidents of volcanic origin. When all the premouiton^' 
signs and all the products of eruptions shall have been perfectly 
ascertained and duly classified, then the glance of science ^\'ill be 
on the point of penetrating into, and duly reading, the secrets of 
the subterranean abysses where these marvelous convulsions are 
being prepared. 

The last great eruption of Etna, that central pyramid of the 
Mediterranean, which the ancients named the " Umbilicus of the 
world,'- is one of the most magnificent examples which can be 
brought forward of volcanic phenomena ; and as it has, moreover, 
been studied most precisely and completely, it well deserves to 
be described in some detail. 

The explosion had been heralded for some long time by pre- 
cursor\' signs. In the month of Juh', 1S63. after a series of con- 
vulsive movements of the soil, the loftiest cone of the volcano 
opened on the side which faces the south. The incandescent 
matter descended slowly over the plateau on which stands the 
" Maison des Anof'ais :" and this building itself was demolished 



812 MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRLAL PHENOMENA. 

bv tlie lumps of lava which were hurled from the mouth o{ the 
crater. lu some places heaps of ashes several yards thick covered 
the slopes of the volcano. 

After this first explosion, the mountain never became com- 
pletely calm ; numerous fissures, which opened on the outer slopes 
of the crater, continued to smoke, and the hot vapor never ceased 
to jet out from the summit in thick eddies. Often, indeed, dur- 
ing the night, the reflection of the lava boiling up in the central 
cavity lighted up the atmosphere ^^-ith a fier\- red. The liquid, 
being unable to rise to the mouth of the crater, pressed against 
the external walls of the volcano, and sought to fiud an issue 
through the weakest point of the crust by melting gradually the 
rocks that opposed its passage. 

GROUND RENT ASUNDER. 

Finally, in the night of the 30th to the 31st of January, 
1865, the wall of the crater yielded to the pressure o{ the lava ; 
some subterranean roaring was heard ; slight agitations aftected 
the whole of the eastern part of Sicily, aud the ground was rent 
open for the length of a mile and a half to the north of Monte 
Frumento, one of the secondary cones which rise on the slope of 
Etna. Through this fissure, which opened oil a gently-inclined 
plateau, the pent-up lava violently broke through to the surface. 

The fissure which opened on the side of the mountain, and 
could be easily followed by the eye to a point about two-thirds of 
the height of Monte Frumento, in the direction of the terminal 
crater of Etna, seems to have vomited out lava but for a verj' few 
hours. Beiugsoon obstructed by the snow and debris of the adjacent 
slopes, it ceased to retain its communication with the interior of 
the mountain, and now resembled a kind of furrow, as if hol- 
lowed out bv the rain-water on the side of the cone. On the 31st 
of January all the volcanic activity of the crevice was concen- 
trated on the gently iuclined plateau which extends at the base 
of ^lonte Frumento, in the midst of which several new hillocks 
made their appearance. 

Ou the lower prolongation of the line of fracture, all the 



MUTUAL DF.rENDENCK OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA 313 

pheuomena of the eruption properly so-called Avcve distributed iu 
a periectly regular way. Six principal cones ot ejection were 
raised above the crevice, and oraduallv increased in size, owine to 
the debris which they threw out of their craters. These, gradu- 
ally mingling their inten-ening slopes, and blending them one 
with another, absorbed in succession other smaller cones which 
had been formed bv their sides, thus reaching a height of nearly 
300 feet. Soon after the commencement of the eruption the two 
upper craters, standing close together on an isolated cone, vomited 
nothing but lumps of stone and ashes, while jets of still liquid 
lava were emitted bv the lower craters, which were arranged in a 
semi-circle around a sort of funnel-shaped cavity. 

HOW LAVA MADE ITS ESCAPE. 

In consequence of the specific gravities of the substances 
evacuated, a regular division of labor took place between the 
various points of the crevice. The projectiles which had solidified 
the triturated debris, and the more or less porous fragments which 
floated on the top of the lava, made their escape b\' the higher 
orifices ; but the liquid mass, being heavier and more compact, 
could onlv burst forth from the ground by the mouths opening at 
a less elevation. 

Two months after the commencement oi the eruption, the 
cone which was the nearest to Frumento ceased to send out either 
scoriae or ashes. The pipe of the crater was filled up with debris, 
and the internal activity was revealed by vapors either of a sul- 
phurous character or charged with hydrochloric acid. These rose 
like smoke from the slope of the hillock. The second cone, 
situated on a lower part of the fissure, remained in direct commnni- 
cation ^dth the central flow of la\a ; but it was not in a constant 
state of eruption, and rested after each eflfort as if to take breath. 
A crash like that of thunder was the forerunner of the explosion ; 
clouds of vapor, rolling in thick folds, gray with ashes and 
furrowed with stones, darted out from the mouth of the volcano, 
darkening the atmosphere and throwing their projectiles over a 
radius of several hundreds of 3'ards round the hillock. 



314 MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA 

Then, after having discliarged their burdens of debris, the 
dark clouds, giving way to the pressure of the winds, mingled far 
and M'ide with the mists of the horizon. Tbe lower cones, which 
rose immediatel}' over the lava-source, continued to rumble and 
discharge molten matter outside their cavities. The vapor 
which escaped from the seething wall of lava crowded in dark 
contortions round the orifice of the craters. Some of it was red 
or yellow, owing to the reflection of the red-hot matter, and some 
was varioush' shaded bj' the trains of debris ejected with it ; but it 
was impossible to follow them with the eye so rapid was their 
flight. An unintelligible tumult of liarsh sounds simultaneously 
burst forth. The}- were like the noises of saws, whistles, and of 
hammers falling on an anvil. Sometimes one might have fancied 
it like the roaring of the waves breaking upon the rocks during a 
storm, if the sudden explosions had not added their thunder to all 
this uproar of the elements. 

HILLS ROARING AND SMOKING. 

One felt disma^-ed, as if before some living being, at the sight 
of these groups of hillocks, roaring and smoking, and increasing 
in size ever}^ hour, by the debris which they vomited forth from 
the interior of the earth. The volcano, however, then commenced 
to rest ; the erupted matter did not rise much be^'ond lOO yards 
above the craters, while, according to the statement of M, Fouque, 
at the commencement of the eruption it had been thrown to a 
height of 1850 to 1950 yards. 

During the first six da3'S the quantit}' of lava M'hich issued 
from the fissure of Monte Frumcnto was estimated at 117 cubic 
3^ards a second, equivalent to a volume twice the bulk of the Seine 
at low-water time. In the vicinity of the outlets the speed of the 
current was not less than twenty feet « minute ; but lower down, 
the stream, spreading over a wider surface, and throwing out sev- 
eral branches into the side valle3'S, gradualh' lost its initial speed, 
and the fringes of scoriae, which were pushed on before the incan- 
descent matter, advanced, on the average, according to the slope 
of the ground, not more than one and a half to six feet a minute. 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 315 

On the second of February tlie principal current, the breadth 

of which varied from 300 to 550 yards, with an average thickness 

of forty-nine feet, reached the upper ledge of the escarpment 

of Colla-Vecchia, or CoUa-Grande, three miles from the 

fissure of eruption, and plunged like a cataract into the gorge 

below. It was a magnificent spectacle, especially during the night, 

to see this sheet of molten matter, dazzling red like liquid iron, 

making its way, in a thin layer, from the heaps of brown scoriae 

which had gradually accumulated up above ; then, carrying with 

it the more solid lumps, which dashed one against the other with a 

metallic noise, it fell over into the ravine, only to rebound in stars 

of fire. 

ITS BEAUTY FINALLY FADED. 

But this splendid spectacle lasted only for a few days ; the 
fiery fall, by losing in height, diminished gradually in beauty. In 
front of the cataract, and under the jet itself, there was formed 
an incessantly increasing slope of lava, which ultimately filled up 
the ravine, and, indeed, prolonged the slope of the valley above. 
From the reservoir, which was more than 160 feet deep, the stream 
continued to flow to the east toward Mascali, filling up to the brink 
the winding gorge of a dried up rivulet. 

By the middle of the month of February, the fiery stream, 
already more than six miles long, made but very slow progress, and 
the still liquid lava found it difficult to clear an outlet through 
the crust of stones cooled b}^ their contact with the atmosphere ; 
when, all of a sudden, a breaking out took place at the side of the 
stream, at a point some distance up, not far from the source. Then 
a fresh branch of the burning river, flowing toward the plains of 
Linguagrossa, swallowed up thousands of trees which had been 
felled by the woodman. 

This second inundation of lava did not, however, last long. 
The villages and towns situated at the base of the mountain were 
no longer directly menaced ; but the disasters caused by the erup- 
^.ion were, notwithstanding, very considerable. A number of 
farm-houses were swept away ; vast tracts of pasturage and culti- 
":ated ground were covered by slowly hardening rock, and — a 



816 MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 

misfortune which was all the worse on account of the almost general 
deforesting of Sicily — a wide band of forest, comprising, according 
to the various estimates that were made, from 100,000 to 130,000 
trees — oaks, pines, chestnuts, or birches — was completely destroyed. 
When seen from the lower part of the mountain, all these 
burning trunks borne along upon the lava, as if upon a river of 
fire, singularly contributed to the beauty of the spectacle. As is 
always the case in the events of this world, the misfortune of some 
proved to be a source of gratification to others. During the ear- 
liest period of the eruption, while the villagers of Etna looked at 
it with stupor, and were bitterly lamenting over the destruction of 
their forests, hundreds of curious spectators, brought daily b}' the 
steamboats from Catania and ]\Iessina, came to enjoy at their ease 
the contemplation of all the splendid horrors of the conflagration. 

PYRAMIDS AND TWISTED COLUMNS. 

The aspect of the current of lava, as it appeared covered with 
its envelope of scoriae, was scarceh' less remarkable than the sight 
of the matter in motion. The black or reddish aspect of the 
cheire was all roughened with sharp-edged projections, which 
resembled steps, pyramids or twisted columns, on which it was a 
difficult matter to venture, except at the risk of tearing the feet and 
hands. Some months after the commencement of the eruption, the 
onward motion of the interior of the molten stone, which, by break- 
ing the outer crust in every direction, had ultimatel}^ given it this 
rugged outline, was still visibly taking place. Here and there 
cracks in the rock allowed a view, as if through an air-hole, of the 
red and liquid lava swelling up as it flowed gently along like some 
viscous matter. 

A metallic clinking sound was incessantly heard, proceeding 
from the fall of the scorise, which were breaking under the pres- 
sure of the liquid matter. Sometimes, on the hardening current 
of lava, a kind of blister gradualh'' rose, wlrlch either opened 
gently, or bursting with a crash gave vent to the molten mass 
which formed it. Fumerolles, ct>mposcd of various gases, accord- 
ing to the degree of heat of the lava which gave rise to them, jetted 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 317 

out from all the issues. Even ou the banks of the river of stone 
the soil was in many places all burning and pierced with crevices, 
through which escaped a hot air thoroughl}^ charged with the 
smell of burnt roots. 

On the slopes of Frumento, quite close to the upper part of 
the fissure, at a spot where the liquid mass had flowed like a tor- 
tent, M. Fouque noticed a remarkable phenomenon ; sheaths of 
solidified lava were surrounding the trunks of pines, and thus 
showing the height to which the current of molten stone had reached. 
In like manner, the streams of obsidian which flow rapidl}- 
from the basin of Kilauea, in the isle of Hawaii, leave behind 
them on the branches of the trees numerous stalactites like the 
icicles which are formed by melting snow which has again frozen. 
Below the escarpments of the Frumento, the torrent, which was 
there retarded in its progress, had not contented itself with bathing 
for a moment the trunks of the forest trees, but had laid them low. 
Great trunks of trees, broken down by the lava, lay stretched in 
disorder on the uneven bed of the stream, and, although the3^were 
only separated from the molten matter b}^ a crust a few inches thick, 
numbers of them were still clothed with their bark ; several had 
even preserved their branches. 

PINE TREES AND FIRS. 

At the edge of thecheire, some pine trees, which had perhaps 
been preserved from the fire by the moisture being converted b}^ 
the heat into a kind of coating of steam, were surrounded by a 
wall of heaped up lava, and their foliage still continued green ; it 
could not 3'et be ascertained if the sources of the sap had perished 
in their roots. 

In some places, rows of firs verj- close together were suificienl 
to change the direction of the flow, and to cause a lateral deviation. 
Not far from the crater of eruption, on the western bank of the 
great cheire, a trunk of a tree was noticed which by istelf had 
been able to keep back a branch of the stream, and to prevent it 
from filling up the glen which opened immediately below. 

This tree, being thrown down by the weight of the scoriae, had 



318 MUTUAL DEPE>'DEXCE OF ALL TERRESTRL\L PHEN'OMEN.\. 

fallen so as to bar up a slight depression in the ground which pre- 
sented a natural bed to the molten matter. The latter had bent 
and cracked the trunk, but had failed in breaking it and the stony 
torrent had remained suspended, so to speak, above the beautiful 
■wooden slopes which it threatened to destroy completely. 

Round the ver\- mouth of the volcano, a vast glade was 
formed in the forest ; the ground was covered everywhere with 
ashes which the wind had blown into hillocks, like the dunes on 
the sea coast ; all the trees had been broken do\ni by the volcanic 
projectiles, and burned by the scoriae and small stones. The near- 
est trees that were met with, at unequal distances from the mouths 
of eruption, had had their branches torn off by the falling lumps 
of stone, or were buried in ashes up to their terminal crown. 

SEVENTY-FIVE RECORDED ERUPTIONS. 

A spectator might have walked among a number of yellow 
branches which were once the tops of lofty pines. Thus, on the 
plateau of Fnimento and the lower slopes, everything was 
changed both in form and aspect ; we might justly sa^- that, by 
the effects of the erupted matter, the outline of the sides of Etna 
itself had been perceptibly modified. 

And yet this last eruption, one of the most important in our 
epoch, is but an insignificant episode in the history- of tlie mountain; 
it was but a mere pulsation of Etna. During the last twenty cen- 
turies only, more than seventy-five eruptions have taken place, 
and in some of them the flows of lava have been more than 
twelve miles in length, and have covered areas of more than forty 
square miles, which were once in a perfect state of cultivation, 
and dotted over with towns and ^-illages. In former ages, thou- 
sands of other lava-flows and cones of ashes have gradually raised 
and leugthened the slopes of the mountain. 

The mass oi Mount Etna, the total bulk of which is three or 
four thousand times greater than the most considerable of the 
rivers of stone vomited from its bosom, is. in fact, from its sum- 
mit to its base, down even to the lowest submarine depths, nothing 
but the product of successive eruptions throwing out the molten 



MlTl'AL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRL\L PHENOISIENA. 819 

matter of tsie interior. The volcano itself has slowly raised the 
walls of its crater, and then extended its long slopes down to the 
waters of the Ionian Sea. By its fresh beds ot lava and scoriae 
incessantly renewed one npon the other, it has nltimately reared 
its summit into the regions of snow, and has become, as Pindar 
called it, the great " pillar of heaven." 

The earth being generally looked npon as immobility' itself, 
it is a ver^' strange thing to see it open to shoot out into the air 
torrents of gas, and shedding forth like a river the molten rocks of 
its interior. From what invisible source do all these fluid matters 
proceed which spread out in sheets over vast regions? Whence 
come those eriormoiis bodies of steam, extensive enough to Qathet 
immediateh* in clouds around the loftiest summits, and sometimes 
indeed to fall in actual rain-showers ? Science, as we have alreadv 
said, has not completely answered these questions, the positive 
solution of which would be so highly important for our knowledge 
of the globe on which we live. 

AN OLD POPULAR SUPERSTITION. 

According to an ancient popular belief, Etna merelv vomits 
forth, in the shape of vapor, the water which the sea has poured 
into the gulf of Charybdis. This legend, although clothed in a 
poetic garb, has in fact become the hypothesis which is thought 
beyond dispute by those savants who look npon volcanic eruptions 
as being a series of phenomena caused chiefly bv water converted 
into steam. 

The remarkable fiict that all volcanoes are arranged in a kind 
of line along the coasts of the sea, or of inland lacustrine basins, 
is one of the gTeat points which testify in favor of this opinion as 
to the infiltration of water, and give to it a high degree of proba- 
bility*. The Pacific, which is the principal reser^-oir of the water 
of our earth, is circled round b^- a series of volcanic mountains, 
some ranged in chains, and others very distant from one another, 
but still maintaining an evident mutual connection, constituting 
a ''circle of fire," the total development of which is about 22,000 
miles in length. 



320 



MITL'AL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRL\L PHENOMENA. 



This ring of volcanoes does not exactly coincide with the 
semicircle formed by the coasts of Australia, the Sunda Islands, 
the Asiatic continent, and the western coasts of the New World. 
Like a crater described within some ancient and more extensive 
outlet of eruption, the great circle of igneous mountains extends 




PICTURESQUE VIEW OF L.\KE TAUPO AND VOLCANIC MOI^NTAINS. 

its immense curve in a westward direction across the waves of the 
Pacific, from New Zealand to the peninsula of Alaska; on the east, 
it is based on the coast of America, rising in the south so as to 
form some of the loftiest summits of the Andes. 

The still smoking volcanoes of New Zealand, Tongariro and 
tlie cone of Whakari, on White Island, are, in the midst of the 
southern waters of the Pacific properly so called, tlie first evidence 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 821 

of volcanic activity. On the north, a considerable space extends 
in which no volcanoes have yet been observed. The gronp of the 
Feejee Islands, at which the volcanic ring recommences, presents 
a large nnmber of former craters which still manifest the internal 
action of the lava by the abundance of thermal springs. At this 
point, a branch crossing the South Sea in an oblique direction 
from the basaltic islands of Juan Fernandez as far as the active 
volcanoes of the Friendly group, unites itself with the principal 
chain which passes round, in a northeast direction, the coast of 
Australia and New Guinea. 

GREAT FOCUS OF LAVA STREAMS. 

The volcanoes of Abrini a'ud Tanua, in the New Hebrides, 
Tinahoro, in the archipelago of Santa Cruz, and Semoya, in the 
Salomon Isles, succeeding one after the other, connect the knot of 
the Feejees to the region of the Sunda Islands, where the earth is 
so often agitated b}?' violent shocks. This region mav be consid- 
ered as the great focus of the lava streams of our planet. On the 
kind of broken isthmus which connects Australia with the Indo- 
Chinese peninsula, and separates the Pacific Ocean from the great 
Indian seas, one hundred and nine volcanoes are vomiting out lava, 
ashes, or mud in full activity-, destroying from time to time the 
towns and the villages which lie upon their slopes ; sometimes, 
in their more terrible explosions, they ultimately explode bodily, 
covering with the dust of their fragments areas of several thou- 
sands of miles in extent. 

From Papua to Sumatra, ever}- large island, including prob- 
ably the almost unknown tracts of Borneo, is pierced with one or 
more volcanic outlets. There are Timor, Flores, Sumbawa, 
Lombok, Bali, and Java, which last has no less than forty-five 
volcanoes, twenty-eight of which are in a state of activit}^ and, 
lastly, the beautiful island of Sumatra. Then, to the east of 
Borneo — Ceram, Amboyna, Gilolo, the volcano of Temata, sung 
by Camoens, Celebes, Mindanao, Mindoro, and Luzon ; these form 
across the sea, as it were, two great tracks of fire. 

Northward of Luzon, the volcanic ring curves gradually so as 

21-F.S. 



822 MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRL^L PHENOMENA. 

to follow a direction parallel to the coast of Asia. Formosa, the 
Liou-Kieou archipelago, and other groups of islands stand in a 
line over the submarine volcanic fissure ; farther on, there are the 
numerous volcanoes of Japan, one of which, Fusiyama, with a 
cone of admirable regularity, is looked upon by the inhabitants 
of Niphon as a sacred mountain, from which the gods come down. 
The elongated archipelago of the Kuriles, comprising about a 
dozen volcanic orifices, unites Japan to the peninsula of Kams- 
chatka, in which no less than fourteen volcanoes are reckoned as 
being in full activity. 

To the east of this peninsula, the range of craters suddenl}' 
changes its direction, and describes a graceful semicircle across the 
Pacific, from Behring Island to the point of Alaska. Thirtj'-four 
smoking: cones stand on this oreat transversal dike, extending- from 
continent to continent. Ounimak, which rises on the extremity 
of the peninsula of Alaska, the peak of which is 7939 feet in 
height, serves as the western limit of the New World, and is also 
pierced b}- a crater in a state of full activit}". 

VOLCANO IN ALASKA. 

Eastward of the peninsula, the volcanic chain extends along 
the seacost of the continent. ]\Iount St. EHas, one of the highest 
summits in America, often vomits lava from its crater, which opens 
at an elevation of 17,716 feet. Farther to the south, another 
active volcano. Mount Fairweather, rises to a height of 14,370 
feet. Next comes ]\Iount Edgecumbe, in Lazarus Island, and 
the volcanic regfion of British Columbia. The whole chain of the 
Cascades, in Oregon, as well as the parallel ranges of the Sierra 
Nevada and the Rock}^ Alountains, are overlooked b}" a great 
number of volcanoes ; but onl}' a few of them continue to throw 
out smoke and ashes : these are Mount Baker, Renier, and St. 
Helens, enormous peaks 10,000 to 16,000 feet high. 

In California and Northern Mexico, it is probable that the 
basaltic and trachtic mountains on the coast no longer present 
outlets of eruption. Subterranean activity is not manifested with 
anv degree of violence until we reach the high plateaux of Central 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 323 

Mexico. There a series of volcanoes, rising over a fissure cross- 
ing the continent, extends over the whole plateau of Anahuac, 
from the Southern Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The Colima, 
then the celebrated JoruUo, which made its appearance in 1759, the 
Nevado de Tolima, Istacihuetl, Popocatepetl, Orizaba, and Tuxtla 
are the vents for the furnace of lava which is boiling beneath 
the Mexican plateau. 

To the south, in Gautemala and the South American repub- 
lics, thirt}' burning mountains, much more active and terrible than 
those of Anahuac, rise in two chains, one of which is parallel to 
the sea-coast, and the other crosses obliquely the isthmus of 
Nicaragua. Among these numerous volcanoes there are some, 
the names of which have become famous on account of the friehtful 
disasters which have been caused by their eruptions. Such are 
the mountains del Fuego and del Agua, above the Ciudad-Antigua 
of Gautemala; the Phare d'lsalco, which during the night lights 
up far and wide the plains of Salvador with its jets of molten 
stone and its column of red smoke ; Coseguina, the last great 
eruption of which was probably the most formidable of modern 
times ; the Viejo, Nuevo, Momotombo, and other mountains, which 
are almoFt worshiped from being so much dreaded. 

ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 

The depressions of the isthmuses of Panama and Darien 
interrupt the series of volcanoes which border on the coast of the 
Pacific. The peak of Tolima, which rises to the great height of 
17,716 feet, is the most northern of the active volcanoes of South 
America, and is also one of the most distant from the sea among 
all the fire-vomiting mountains, for the distance from its base 
to the Pacific coast is not less than 124 miles. South of 
Tolima, and the great plateau of Pasto, where there likewise exists 
a crater, stands the magnificent group of sixteen volcanoes, some 
already extinct and some still smoking, over which towers the 
proud dome of Chimborazo. 

Occup3-ing an elliptical space, the great axis of which is only 
about 112 miles long, this group, comprising the Tunguagua, 



324 MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 

Caraliuizo, Cotopaxi, Aiitisaua, Picliinclia, Imbabiira, and Sangay, 
is often looked upon as but one volcano with several eruptions ; 
it is tlie cluster wliicb, on the southern coasts of the Isthmus of 
Panama, corresponds symmetrically to the volcanic group of 
Anahuac. South of Sangay, which is perhaps the most destruc- 
tive volcano on the earth, the chain of the Cordelleras offers no 
volcanoes for a length of about 930 miles ; but in Southern Peru 
the volcanic series recommences, and outlets of eruption still in 
action open at intervals among extinct volcanoes and domes of 
trachyte. 

The three smoking peaks of the inhabited part of Chili, the 
mountains of Antuco, Villarica, and Osono, terminate the series of 
the great American volcanoes ; the activity of subterranean action 
is, however, disclosed by some other less elevated craters down to 
the extremity of the continent as far as the point of Terra-del- 
Fuego. This is not all ; the South Shetland Islands, situated in 
the Southern Ocean, in a line with the New World, are likewise 
volcanic in their character ; and if the same direction be followed 
toward the polar regions, the line will ultimately touch upon the 
coasts of the land of Victoria, on which rise the two lofty volcanoes 
of Brebus and Mount Terror, discovered by Sir John Ross. 

VOLCANIC CIRCLE ROUND THE EARTH. 

Stretching round the sphere of the earth, the great volcanic 
circle is extended toward the north by various islets of the antartic, 
and ultimately rejoins the archipelago of New Zealand. Thus is 
completed the great ring of fire which circles round the whole 
surface of the Pacific Ocean. 

Within this ampitheatre of volcanoes a multitude of those 
charming isles, which are scattered in pleiads over the ocean, are 
also of volcanic origin, and many of them can be distinguished 
from afar by their smoking or flaming craters. Of this kind are 
some of the Marianne and Gallapagos Islands, which contain 
several orifices in full activity, and more than two thousand cones 
in a state of repose. Among these we must especially mention 
the Sandwich Islands, the lofty volcanoes of which rise in the 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 325 

middle central basin of tlie North Pacific like so many cones of 
eruption in tlie midst of a former crater cHanged into a lake. 

The Mauna-Loa and Mauna-Kea, the two volcanic summits 
of the island of Hawaii, are each more than 13,000 feet in height ; 
and the eruptions of the first cone, which are still in full activity, 
must be reckoned among the most magnificent spectacles of this 
kind. On the sides of the Mauna-Loa opens the boiling crater of 




VOLCANO OF TONGARRIRO, NEW ZEALAND. 

Kilauea, which is, without doubt, the most remarkable lava-source 
which exists on our planet. 

Round the circumference of the Indian Ocean the border of 
volcanoes is much less distinct than round the Pacific ; still it is 
possible to recognize some of its elements. To the north of Java 
and Sumatra, the volcanoes of which overlook the eastern portion 
of the basins of the Indian seas, stretches the volcanic archipelago 
of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in which there are several 
cones of eruption in full activity. On the west of Hindostan, the 



326 MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 

peninsula of Kutch, and the delta of tlie Indus, are often agitated 
by subterranean forces. 

Many mountains on tbe Arabian coast are notliing but masses 
of lava; and, if various travelers are to be believed, tlie volcanic 
furnace of these countries is not yet extinct. The Kenia, the great 
mountain of Eastern Africa, has on its own summit a crater still 
in action — perhaps the only one which exists on this continent. 
Lastly, a large number of islands which surround the Indian 
Ocean on the west and on the south — Socotora, Mauritius, Reunion, 
St. Paul, and Amsterdam Islands — are nothing but cones of 
eruption, which have gradually emerged from the bed of the 
ocean. 

The volcanic districts which are scattered on the edge of the 
Atlantic are likewise distributed with a kind of symmetry round 
three sides of this great basin. On the north, Jan Ma3^en, so 
often wrapt in mist, and the more considerable island of Iceland, 
pierced by numerous craters, Hecla, the Skapta-Jokul, the Kotlu- 
gaja, and seventeen other mountains of eruption, separate the 
Atlantic from the Polar Ocean. At about 1500 miles nearer the 
equator the peaks of the Azores, some extinct and some still 
burning, rise out of the sea. 

DEAD VOLCANOES. ^ 

The archipelago of the Canaries, over which towers the lofty 
mass of the peak of Teyda, continues toward the south the 
volcanic line of the Azores, and is itself prolonged by the smok- 
ing summits of the Cape de Verde Islands. All the other moun- 
tains of lava which spring up from the bed of the Atlantic more 
to the south appear to have completely lost their activit}^, and on 
the coast itself there is, according to Burton, only one volcano 
still in action — that of the Cameroons. With regard to the "line 
of fire" along the western Atlantic, it is developed at the entrance 
of the Caribbean Sea with perfect regularity, like the range of the 
Aleutian Isles. Trinidad, Grenada, St, Vincent, St. Lucia, Do- 
minica, Gaudeloupe, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, and St. Eusta- 
tins are so many outlets of volcanic force, either through their 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 327 

smoking craters or their mud volcanoes, their solfataras or their 
thermal springs. 

North and south of the Antilles, the eastern coast of America 
does not present a single vent of eruption. It is a remarkable 
fact that the two volcanic groups of the Antilles and the Sunda 
Islands are situated exactly at the antipodes one of the other, and 
also in the vicinity of the two poles of flattening, the existence of 
which on the surface of the globe has been proved by the recent 
calculations of astronomers. More than this, these two great 
volcanic centres, which are undoubtedly the most active on the 
whole earth, flank, one on the west and the other on the east, the 
immense curve of volcanoes which spreads round the Pacific. 

HIGH SUMMITS ON FIRE. 

The Mediterranean is not surrounded by a circle of volcanoes ; 
but there, as elsewhere, it is from the midst of the sea, or imme- 
diately on the sea-coast, that the burning mountains rise — Etna, 
Vesuvius, Stromboli, Volcano, Bpomeo and Santorin. In like 
manner, the volcanoes of mud and gas of the peninsula of Apche- 
ron, and the summit of Demavend, 14,436 feet high, rise at no 
great distance from the Caspian Sea. 

With regard to the volcanoes of Mongolia — the Turfan, which 
is said to be still in action, and the Pe-chan, which, according to 
Chinese authors, vomited forth, up to the seventh century, ''fire, 
smoke, and molten stone, which hardened as it cooled" — their 
existence is not yet absolutely proved ; but even if these moun- 
tains, situated in the centre of the continent, should be in full 
activity, their phenomena might depend on the vicinity of exten- 
sive sheets of water, for this very region of Asia still possesses a 
large number of lakes, the remnants of a former inland sea, 
almost as vast as the Mediterranean. 

What is the number of volcanoes which are still vomiting forth 
lava during the present period of the earth's vitality ? It is diffi- 
cult to ascertain, for often mountains have seemed for a long time 
to be extinct ; forests have grown up in their disused craters, and 
their beds of lava have been covered up under a rich carpet of 



328 MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF ALL TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 

vegetation, wlien suddenh' the sleeping force beneath is aroused 
and some fresh volcanic outlet is opened through the ground. 

When Vesuvius woke up from its protracted slumber to 
swallow up Pompeii and the other towns l3^ing round its base, it 
had rested for some centuries, and the Romans looked upon it as 
nothing but a lifeless mountain like the peaks of the Apennines. 
On the other hand, it is very possible that some craters, from w^hich 
steam and jets of gas are still escaping, or which have thrown out 
lava during the historic era, have entered decisively into a period 
of repose, ceasing somehow to maintain their communication with 
the subterranean centre of molten matter. The number of vents 
which serve for the eruption of lava can, therefore, be ascertained 
in a merely approximate wa3^ 

Humboldt enumerates 223 active volcanoes ; Keith Johnston 
arrives at the larger number of 270, 190 of which are compre- 
hended in the islands and the Pacific ''circle of fire;" but this 
latter estimate is probably too small. To the number of these 
burning mountains, standing nearly all of them on the sea-shore, 
or in the vicinit}^ of some great fresh water basin, must be added 
the salses, or mud-volcanoes, which are also found near large 
sheets of salt water. With regard to the thousands of extinct 
volcanoes which rise in various parts of the interior of the conti- 
nent, geology shows that the sea used formerly to extend round 
their bases. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Torrents of Steam Escaping from Craters. — Gases Pro- 

DUCED BY THE DECOMPOSITION OF SEA-WATER. — HYPOTH- 
ESES AS TO THE Origin of Eruption. — Growth of 

Volcanoes. 

/^NE of the most decisive arguments which can be used in 
^^ favor of a free communication existing between marine 
basins and volcanic centres is drawn from the large quantities of 
steam which escape from craters during an eruption, and com- 
pose, according to M. Ch. Sainte-Claire Deville, at least 999 
thousandths of the supposed volcanic smoke. During the erup- 
tion of Etna, in 1865, M. Fouque attempted to gauge approxi- 
mately the volume of water which made its escape in a gaseous 
form from the craters of eruption. 

By taking as his scale of comparison the cone which appeared 
to him to emit an average quantity of steam, he found this mass, 
reduced to a liquid state, would be equivalent to about 79 cubic 
yards of water for each general explosion. Now, as these ex- 
plosions took place on the average every four minutes during a 
hundred days, he arrived at the result, that the discharge of 
water during the continuance of the phenomenon might be 
estimated at 2,829,600 cubic yards of water — a flow equal to that 
of a permanent stream discharging fifty-five gallons a second. 
Added to this, account ought to have been taken of the enormous 
convolutions of vapor which were constantly issuing from the 
great terminal crater at Etna, and, bending over under the pres- 
sure of the wind, spread out in an immense arch around the 
vault of the sky. 

In great volcanic eruptions it often happens that these clouds 
of steam, becoming suddenly condensed in the higher layers of 
the atmosphere, fall in heavy showers of rain, and form temporary 
torrents on the mountain-side. According to the statements of 
Sir James Ross, the mountain Erebus, of the antarctic land, is 

329 



330 CR-ATER3 BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEA>L 

covered with snow, which, it has just vomited forth in the form of 
vapor. It has besides been remarked that the vapor which issues 
from volcanoes is not always warm ; often, according to Pceppig, 
it is of the same temperature as the surrounding air. 

x\s was said long since by Krug von Xidda, a German savant, 
volcanoes must be looked upon as enormous intermittent springs. 
The basaltic flows may be compared to streams on account of the 
water which they contain. It is probable that most of the lava 
which flows from volcanic fissures owes its mobility to the 
innumerable particles of vapor which fill up all the interstices of 
m-oWng mass. Being composed in great measure of crystals 
already formed in the body of which may be noticed nodules and 
crj-stals rounded by friction, the lava would be unable to descend 
over the slopes if it were not rendered fluid by its mixture ^vith 
steam ; and the gradual slacking in speed and ultimate stoppage 
of the flow are chiefl\- caused by the setting free of the gases 
which serv^ed as a vehicle to the solid matter. Owing to this 
rapid loss of their humidit}', basalts contain in their pores but a 
very slight quantity of water in comparison with other rocks. 
Yet even old lava themselves contain as much as ten to nineteen 
thousandths of water at the edge of the bed, and flve to eighteen 
thousandths at the centre. 

SEA-WATER DECOMPOSED. 

The various substances which are produced from craters also 
tend to show that sea-water has been decomposed in the great 
labaratory of lava. Ordinarj^ salt or chloride of sodium, which 
is the mineral that is most abundant in sea-water, is also that 
which is deposited the first and most plentifully round the orifices 
of eruption. Sometimes, the scoriae and ashes are covered for a 
vast space with a white efflorescence, which is nothing but com- 
mon salt ; one might fancy it a shingly beach which had j ust been 
left by the ebbing tide. After each eruption of Hecla, the Ice- 
landers are in the habit, it is said, of collecting salt on the slopes. 
The lava from the eruption of Frumento, analyzed by M. Fouque, 
contained about thirteen ten thousandths of marine salt. 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 881 

Almost all other component parts of sea-water are likewise 
found in the gases and deposits of fnmerolles ; only the salts of 
magnesia have disappeared, bnt still are found under another 
form among the volcanic products. Being decomposed by the 
high temperature, just as the}^ would be in the laboratory of a 
chemist, the}- go to constitute other bodies. Thus the chloride of 
magnesium is changed into hydrochloric acid and magnesia ; the 
gas escapes in abundance from the fnmerolles, while the magne- 
sia remains fixed in the lava. 

FOUR PERIODS IN EVERY ERUPTION. 

As M. Ch. Sainte-Claire Deville was the first to ascertain with 
certaint}^, four successive periods may be observed in every erup- 
tion, each of which periods assumes a different character, owing 
to the exhalation of certain substances. After the first period, 
remarkable especially for marine salt and the various compounds 
of soda and potash, comes a second in which the temperature is 
lower, and during which brilliantly colored deposits of chloride 
of iron are formed and hydrochloric and sulphurous acids are 
expelled. AVhen the temperature is below 392° (Fahr.), there are 
ammoniacal salts and needles of sulphur, which are found in yel- 
lowish masses on the scoriae of lava. 

Lastly, when the heat of the erupted bodies is below 212° 
(Fahr.), the fnmerolles eject nothing but steam, azote, carbonic 
acid and combustible gases. Thus the activity of the exhala- 
tions and deposits is in proportion to the incandescence of the 
lava. At the commencement of the eruption, the orifices throw 
out a large quantity of substances, from marine salt to carbonic 
acid ; but by degrees the power of elaboration weakens simultane- 
ously with the heat, and the gases ejected gradually diminish in 
number, and testify, by their increasing rarity, to the approach- 
ing cessation of volcanic phenomena. In consequence of the differ- 
ence which is presented by the exhalations during the various 
phases of eruptions of lava, observers have, at first sight, thought 
that each volcano was distinguished by emanations peculiar to 
itself. Hydrochloric acid was looked upon as one of the normal 



332 CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 

products of Vesuvius, and sulphurous vapors as more especial 
to Etua. It was stated (with Boussingault) that carbonic acid 
was exhaled especially by the volcanoes of the Andes ; and, with 
Bunseu, it was believed that combustible gases prevailed in the 
eruptions of Hecla. 

In his beautiful investigations into the various chemical 
phenomena presented by Etna and the neighboring volcanic out- 
lets, such as Vesuvius and Stromboli, M. Fouque appears to have 
established as a fact which must be henceforth beyond dispute, 
that the gradual series of these emanations is just that which 
would be produced by the decomposition of sea-water. Added to 
this, we also find in lava iodine and fluorine, both of which we 
should expect to detect in it on account of their presence in sea- 
water. The salts of bromine, of which, however, only a slight 
trace is found in sea-water, have not yet been detected in volcanic 
products, which, no doubt, proceeds from the dif&culty which 
chemists have experienced in separating such verj^ small 

quantities. 

MELTED ROCKS. 

The other mattters ejected b}^ eruptions are of terrestrial 
origin, and evidently proceed from rocks reduced by heat to a 
liquid or past}^ state; they consist principally of silica and 
alumina, and contain, besides, lime, magnesia, potash, and soda. 
Oxides of iron also enter into the composition of lava, to the extent 
of more than one-tenth, wdiich is a very considerable proportion, 
and warrants us in looking upon the volcanic flows as actual tor- 
rents of iron ore ; sometimes, indeed, this metal appears in a pure 
state. It is to this presence of iron that lava especially owes its 
reddish color, and the sides of the crater their diversely colored 

sides. 

Compounds of copper, maganese, cobalt, and lead are also mei 
with in lava ; but, in comparison with the iron, they are but of 
slight importance. Lastly, phosphates, ammonia, and gases com- 
posed of hydrogen and carbon are discharged during eruptions. 
The presence of these bodies is explained by the enormous pro- 
portion of animal and vegetable matter which is decomposed in 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 333 

sea-water. EHrenberg found tlie remains of marine animalculae 
in tlie substances thrown out by volcanoes. 

Is tlie composition of tbe lava, and especially that of the vapor 
and gases, the same in those eruptions which take place at a 
great distance from the ocean ? It is probable that, as regards 
this point, considerable differences might be established between 
the products of volcanoes placed on the sea-coast, such as Vesuvius 
and Etna, and those which rise far in the interior of the land, as 
Tolima, Jorullo, and Purace. This comparative study, however, 
which would be calculated to throw light on the chemical phe- 
nomena of deep-lying beds, has as yet been made at only a few 

points. 

HOT WATER UNDER GROUND. 

Eruptions are rare in volcanoes situated far from the coast, 
and when they do take place, scientific men do not happen to be 
on the spot to study the course of the occurrence. Popocatepetl, 
one of the most remarkable continental volcanoes, produces a large 
quantity of hydrochloric acid ; the snow from it, which has a 
very decided muriatic taste, is carried by the rain into the Lake 
of Tezcuco, where, in conjunction with soda, its forms salt. 

When the water, either of sea or rivers, penetrates into the 
crevices of the terrestrial envelope, it gradually increases in tem- 
perature the same as the rocks it passes through. It is well 
known that this increase of heat may be estimated on the average 
at least as regards the external part of the planet, at i° (Fahr.) 
for every 54 feet in depth. Following this law, water descending 
to a point 7500 feet below the surface would show, in the southern 
latitudes of Europe, a temperature of about 212° (Fahr.). But it 
would not on this account be converted into steam, but would re- 
main in a liquid state, owing to the enormous pressure which it 
has to undergo from tbe upper layers. 

According to calculations, which are based, it is true, on 
various hypothetical data, it would be at a point more than nine 
miles below the surface of the ground that the expansive force of 
the water would attain sufficient energy to balance the weight of 
the superincumbent liquid masses, and to be suddenly converted 



334 CRATERS BELCHING T0RRENT5 OF STEAM. 

into steam at a temperature of 800° to 900° (Falir.). These gas- 
eous masses would then have force to lift a column of water of 
the weight of 1500 atmospheres; if, however, from any cause, 
they can not escape as quickly as they are formed, they exercise 
their pressure in every direction, and ultimately find their way 
from fissure to fissure until they reach the fused rocks which exist 
in the depths. To this incessantly increasing pressure we must, 
therefore, attribute the ascent of the lava into vent-holes of vol- 
canoes, the occurrence of earthquakes, the fusion and the rupture 
of the terrestrial crust, and, finally, the violent eruptions of the 
imprisoned fluids. 

But wh}^ should the vapor thus pervade the subterranean 
strata and upheave them into volcanic cones, when, by the natural 
effect of its overcoming the columns of water which press it down, 
it ought simply to rise toward the bed of the sea from which it 
descended ? In the present state of science, this is a question to 
which it seems absolutely impossible to give a satisfactory answer, 
and geologists must at least have the merit of candidly acknowl- 
edging their ignorance on this point. 

STEAM IN VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS, 

The discoveries of natural philosoph}^ and chemistry, which 
have been the means of making known to us the enormous activity 
of steam in volcanic eruptions, will doubtless, sooner or later, ex- 
plain to us in what way this activity is exercised in the subter- 
ranean cavities. But at the present time the phenomena which 
are taking place in the interior of our globe are not better known 
to us than the history of the lunar volcanoes. 

Be this as it may, the direct observations which have been 
made on volcanic eruptions have now rendered it a very doubtful 
point whether the lavas of various volcanoes proceed from one 
and the same reservoir of molten matter, or fiom the supposed 
great central furnace which is said to fill the whole of the interior 
of the planet. Volcanoes which are very close to one another 
show no coincidence in the times of their eruptions, and vomit 
forth at different epochs, lavas which are most dissimilar both in 



CRATERS BELCHING TOKKENTS OF STEAM. 335 

appearance and mineralogical composition. These facts would be 
eminently impossible, if tlie craters were fed from the same 
source. 

Etna, the group of the Lipari Isles, and Vesuvius, have often 
been quoted as being volcanic outlets placed upon the same 
fracture of the terrestrial crust ; and it is added, in corroboration 
of this assertion, that a line traced from the Sicilian volcano to 
that of Naples passes through the ever-active furnace of the 
Lipari Isles. Although the mountain of Stromboli, so regular in 
its eruptions, is situated on a line slightly divergent from the 
principal line, and, on the other side, the volcanic isles of Salini, 
Alicudi, and Felicudi tend from east to west, it is possible, and 
even probable, that Vesuvius and Etna are in fact situated on 
fissures of the earth which were once in mutual communication. 
But during the thousands of years in which these great craters 
have been at work, no connection between their eruptions has 
ever been positively certified. 

T^A/'0 INDEPENDENT VOLCANOES. 

Sometimes, as in 1865, Vesuvius vomits forth lava at the 
same time as- Etna ; sometimes it is in a state of repose when its 
mighty neighbor is in full eruption, and rouses up when the lava 
of Etna has cooled. There is nothing which affords the slighest 
indication of any law of rhythm or periodicity in the eruptive 
phenomena of the two volcanoes. The inhabitants of Stromboli 
state that, during the winter of 1865, at the moment when the 
sides of Etna were rent, the volcanic impulse manifested itself 
very strongly in their island by stirring up the always agitated 
waves of the lava-crater which commands their vineyards and 
houses. 

A comparative calm, however, soon succeeded this temporary 
effervescence, and in the adjacent island of Volcano no increase 
of activity was noticed. If the shafts of Etna, Vesuvius, and the 
intervening volcanoes, take their rise in one and the same ocean 
of liquid lava, all the lower craters must necessarily overflow 
simultaneously with the most elevated. Now, as has often been 



336 CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 

noticed, tlie lava may ascend to tlie summit of Etna, at a lieiglit 
of 10,827 ^^^^^ without a simultaneous flow of rivers of molten 
stone from Vesuvius, Stromboli, and Volcano, whicli are respec- 
tively but one-third, one-fourth, and one-tenth the height of the 
former. In like manner, Kilauea, situated on the sides of Mauna- 
Loa, in the Isle of Hawaii, in no way participates in the eruptions 
of the central crater opening at a point 9800 feet higher up, and 
not more than twelves miles away. 

If there is any present geological connection between the 
volcanoes of one and the same region, it probably must be attrib- 
uted to the fact of their phenomenal depending on the same 
climatic causes, and not because their bases penetrate to one and 
the same ocean of fire. Volcanic orifices are not, therefore," safety 
valves," for two centers of activity may exist on one mountain 
without their eruptions exhibiting the least appearance of 

connection. 

OPINIONS OF MEN OF SCIENCE. 

Isolated as they are amid all the other formations on the 
surface of the earth, lavas appear as if almost independent of the 
rest. Basalts, trachytes, and volcanic ashes, are the comparatively 
modern products which are scarcely met with in the periods 
anterior to the Tertiary age. Only a very small quantity of these 
lavas of eruption has been found in the Secondary and Palseozoic 
rocks. Formerl}^, most geologists thought that the granites and 
rocks similar to them had issued from the earth in a pasty or 
liquid state ; they looked upon them as the " lavas of the 
past," and believed that these first eruptive rocks were succeeded 
age after age by the diorites, the porphyries, the trap-rocks, then 
by the trachytes and the basalts of our own da}^, all drawn from 
a constantly increasing depth. 

They thought also that, in the future, when the whole series 
of the present lavas shall have been thrown up to the surface, 
volcanoes would produce other substances as distinct from the 
lavas as the latter are from the granite. Granites, however, differ 
so much from the trachytes and basalts as to render it impossible 
for us to imagine that they have the same origin ; added to which, 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 337 

tte labors of modem savants liave proved tliat, under the action 
of fire, granite and the other rocky masses of the same kind, 
would have been unable to assume the crystalline texture which 
distinguishes them. We are, then, still ignorant how volcanic 
eruptions commenced upon the earth, and how they are connected 
with the other great phenomena which have co-operated in the 
formation of the external strata of the globe. 

Considered singly, each volcano is nothing but a mere orifice, 
temporary or permanent, through which a furnace of lava is 
brought into communication with the surface of the globe. The 
matter thrown out accumulates outside the opening, and gradually 
forms a cone of debris more or less regular in its shape, which 
ultimately attains to considerable dimensions. One flow of molten 
matter follows another, and thus is gradually formed the skeleton 
of the mountain ; the ashes and stones thrown out by the crater 
accumulate in long slopes ; the volcano simultaneously grows 
wider and higher. 

MOUNTS INTO CLOUDS AND SNOW^. 

After a long succession of eruptions, it at last mounts up 
into the clouds, and then into the region of permanent snow. At 
the first outbreak of the volcano the orifice is on the surface of the 
ground ; it is then prolonged like an immense chimney through 
the center of the cone, and each new river of lava which flows 
from the summit increases the height of this conduit. Thus the 
highest outlet of Etna opens at an elevation of 10,892 feet above 
the level of the sea; Teneriffe rises to 12,139 feet ; Mauna-Loa, 
in Hawaii, to 13,943 feet, and, more gigantic still, Sangay and 
Sahama, in the Cordilleras, attain to 18,372 and 23,950 feet in 
elevation. 

This theory of the formation of volcanic mountains by the 
accumulation of lava and other matters cast out of the bosom of 
the earth presents itself quite naturally to one's mind. Most 
savants, from Saussure and Spallanzani down to Virlet, Constant 
Prevost, Poulett Scrope and Lyell, have been led, by their inves- 
tigations, to adopt it entirely ; indeed, in the present daj' it is 

22^ F. 



838 CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 

scarce!}^ disputed. It is true tliat Humboldt, Leopold vou Buch 
and, following tliem, M. Blie de Beaumont, have put forth quite a 
different hypothesis, as to the origin of several volcanoes, such as 
Etna, Vesuvius and the Peak of TenerifFe. 

According to their theor}^, volcanic mountains do not owe 
their present conformation to the long-continued accumulation of 
lava and ashes, but rather to the sudden upheaval of the terrestrial 
strata. During some revolution of the globe, the pent-up matter 
in the interior suddenly upheaves a portion of the crust of the 
planet into the form of a cone, and opens a funnel-shaped gulf 
between the dislocated strata, thus by one single paroxysm pro- 
ducing lofty mountains, as we now see them. As an important 
instance of a crater thus formed by the upheaval and rupture of 
the terrestrial strata, Leopold von Buch mentions the enormous 
ab3^ss of the Isle of Palma, known by the natives under the name 
of " Caldron," or Caldera. 

HUGE FUNNEL-SHAPED CAVITY. 

The funnel-shaped cavity is of enormous dimensions, and is 
not less than four or five miles in width on the average ; the 
bottom of it is situated about 2000 feet above the level of the sea. 
Lofty slopes, from 1000 to 2000 feet in height, rise round the vast 
amphitheatre, and abut upon inaccessible cliffs, the upper ledges 
of which reach a total altitude of 5900 to 6900 feet in height. The 
highest point, the Pico-de-los-Muchachos, is covered by snow dur- 
ing the winter months ; and, although it penetrates to regions of 
the atmosphere which are of a very different character from those 
of the rest of the island, the slope that is turned toward the crater 
is so steep that blocks of stone falling from the summit roll down 
into the enclosed hollow. 

The prodigious cavity in the Isle of Palma was, perhaps, the 
most striking instance that Leopold von Buch could bring forward 
in favor of his hypothesis ; nevertheless, the exploration of this 
island, since carried out by Hartung, Lyell and other travelers, 
is ver}^ far from confirming the ideas of the illustrious German 
geologist. The lofty side walls of the hollow appear to be formed 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 339 

principally, not of solid lava, wliicli constitute scarcely a quarter 
of the whole mass, but of layers of ashes and scoriae, regularly 
arranged like beds of sand on the incline of a talus. Basalts and 
strata of ashes lie upon one another in the greatest order round 
the inclosed hollow, which would be a fact impossible to compre- 
hend if any sudden upheaval, acting in an upward direction with 
suf&cient violence to break the terrestrial crust, had shattered and 
ruptured all the strata, and by a mighty explosion, opened out 
the immense Caldron of Palma. 

LIKE CRACKS IN BROKEN GLASS. 

Finally, if a phenomenon of this kind had taken place, star- 
formed cracks, like those produced in broken glass, would be 
visible across the thickness of the upheaved strata, and their 
greatest width would be turned toward the crater. Now there are no 
fissures of this kind, and the ravines in the circumference of the 
volcano, which one might perhaps be tempted to confound witt 
actual ruptures of the ground, become wider in proportion as they 
approach the sea. The enormous cavity in Palma is, therefore, a 
crater similar to those of volcanoes of less dimensions. It is, 
however, certain that the Caldera was once both shallower and 
less in extent, for the ashes and volcanic scoriae are easily carried 
away by the rain, which is swallowed up in the bottom of the 
basin, and has hollowed out for itself a wide drainage channel in a 
southwest direction. 

M. Hlie de Beaumont, as his chief support of Leopold von 
Buch's hypothesis, brought forward the fact that most of the strata 
of lava — a section of which may be seen on the sides of Btna, in 
the immense amphitheatre of the Val del Bove — are very sharply 
inclined. The celebrated geologist affirmed that thick sheets of 
molten matter could not run down steep slopes without being very 
soon reduced, in consequence of the acceleration of their speed 
into thin layers of irregular scoriae. If this were really the case, 
the position of the thick flows of lava in the Val del Bove must have 
changed since the date of the eruption. It would then be neces- 
sary to admit that they have been violently tilted up aftf^r having 



340 CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 

been originally deposited on the soil in sheets, whicli were either 
horizontal or very gently sloped. 

Nevertheless, the recent observations made by Sir C. Lyell, 
those of Darwin on the cones of the Gallapagos Isles, and of Dana 
on the lava flows of Kilauea ; lastly, the remarks of the Italian 
savants who studied on the spot the volcanic phenomena of 
Vesuvius and Etna, have satisfactorily proved that, in modern 
times, a great number of rivers of lava, and especially that of the 
Val-de-Bove, in 1852 and 1853, have flowed over steep slopes vary- 
ing in inclination from 15 to 40 degrees. It must, besides, be 
understood that the lava which poured over the steepest slopes 
was exactly that portion which, not having experienced any cause 
of delay, or met with any obstacle, in its course, presented layers 
of the most uniform consistence and the most regular action. 

CLEFT IN THE EARTH. 

One of the strongest arguments of scientific men in favor of 
the theory of upheaval is, that certain volcanic mountains, 
especially that of Monte-Nuovo, Pouzzoles, and Jorullo, in Mexico, 
had been suddenly raised up by the swellings of the soil. Now the 
unanimous testimony of those who, more than three centuries ago, 
witnessed the eruption of Monte-Nuovo, is, that the earth was cleft 
open, affording an outlet to vapor, ashes, scoriae, and lava, and that 
the hill, very much lower than some of the subordinate cones of 
Etna, gradually rose during four days by the heaping up of the 
matter thrown out. The total volume of this eruption was no 
doubt considerable, but compared with the amount of matter which 
flowed down upon Catania in 1669, or with the rivers of lava from 
Skaptar-Jokul, it is a mass of no great importance. 

Added to this, if the soil was really upheaved, how was it that 
the neighboring houses were not thrown down, and that the 
colonnade of the Temple of Neptune, which stands at the foot of 
the mountain, kept its upright position ? With regard to Jorullo, 
which rises to a height of more than 1650 feet, the only witnesses 
of this volcano making its first appearance were the Indians, who 
fled away to the neighboring heights, distracted with terror. 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 841 

We have, therefore, no authentic testimony on which we can 
base an hypothesis as to any swelling up of the ground in the 
form of a blister. Quite the contrary, the travelers who have 
visited this Mexican volcano since Humboldt have discovered beds 
of lava lying one over the other, as in all other cones of eruption ; 
and more than this, they have also ascertained that none of the 
strata in the ground overlooked by the mountain have been at all 
tilted up. 

It is true enough that local swellings have often been observed 

in the burning matter issuing from the interior of the earth ; in 

many places the lava is pierced by deep caverns, and entire 

mountains — especially that of Volcano — have so many hollows in 

the rocks on their sides that every step of the climber resounds 

on them as if in a vault. Besides, the lava itself, being a kind of 

impure glass, is so pervaded by bubbles filled with volatile matter 

that, when acted, upon by fire, so as to expel the water and the 

gas, it loses on an average, according to Fouque, two thirds of its 

weight. 

MIXTURE OF LAVA AND VAPOR. 

But these caverns, these hollov/s and bubbles, proceed from 
the mixture of the lava with vapor which is liberated with 
difficulty from the viscous mass, or are caused by the longitudinal 
rupture of the strata during an eruption, and can in no way be 
compared to the immense blister-like elevation which would be 
formed by the strata of a whole district being tilted up to a 
height of hundreds, or even thousands, of yards, leaving at 
the summit, between two lines of fracture, room for an immense 
cavity. 

None of these prodigious upheavels have been directly 
observed by geologists, and none of the legends invented by the 
fears of our ancestors, referring to the sudden appearance of vol- 
canic mountains, which have been since confirmed. Lastly, the very 
structure of the peaks which are said to have risen abruptly from 
the midst of the plains testifies to the gradual accumulation of 
material that has issued from the bowels of the earth. It is, there- 
fore, prudent to dismiss definitely an hypothesis which marks 



342 CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 

an important period in the history of geolog}^, but wliicli, for the 
future, can onl}^ serve to retard the progress of science. 

As, when the burning matter seeks an outlet, the earth is 
generall}' cleft open in a straight line, the volcanic orifices are 
frequently distributed somewhat regularly along a fissure, and 
the heaps of erupted matter follow one another like the peaks in 
a mountain chain. In other places, however, the volcanic cones 
rise without any apparent order on ground that is variously cleft, 
just as if a wide surface had been softened in every direction, and 
had thus allowed the molten matter to make its escape, sometimes 
at one point, sometimes at another. From the town of Naples — 
which is itself built on a half crater in great part obliterated — 
to the Isle of Nisida, wdiich is an old volcano of regular form, the 
Phlegraean Fields presents a remarkable example of this confu- 
sion of craters. 

LANDSCAPE TURNED TO CHAOS. 

Some are perfectl}' rounded, others are broken into, and their 
circle is invaded by the waters of the sea ; grouped, for the most 
part, in irregular clumps, even encroaching upon one another 
and blending their walls, they give to the whole landscape a 
chaotic appearance. As Mr. Poulett Scrope very justly remarks, 
the aspect of the terrestrial surface at this spot reminds one exactly 
of the volcanic districts of the moon, dotted over, as it is, with 
craters. 

As the type of a region pierced all over with volcanic orifices, 
we may also mention the Ishthmus of Auckland, in New Zealand, 
which Dr. Hockstetter has reckoned, in an area of 230 square 
miles, sixty-one independent volcanoes, 520 to 650 feet in height 
on the average. Some are mere cones of tufa; others are heaps 
of scorise, or even eruptive hillocks, w^hich have shed out round 
them long flows of lava. At one time the INIaori chiefs used to 
intrench themselves in these craters as if in citadels ; they 
escarped the outer slopes in terraces, and furnished them with 
palisades. At the present day, the English colonists, having 
become lords of the soil, have constructed their farms and country 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 343 

houses on these ancient volcanoes, and are constantly bringing 
the soil under cultivation. 

The Safa, in the Djebel-Hauran, is also a complete chaos of 
hillocks and abysses. On this plateau of 460 square miles, which 
the Arabs call a " portion of hell," almost all the craters open 
on the surface of the ground, and not on the summits of volca- 
noes scattered here and there on the black surface. In every 
direction there may be seen rounded cavities like the vacuities 
formed in scoriae by bubbles of gas, only these cavities are 600 to 
900 feet wide, and 65 to 160 deep. Some are isolated ; some 
either touch or are separated by nothing but narrow walls like 
masses of red or darkish-colored glass. One hardly cares to ven- 
ture on these narrow isthmuse2, bordered by precipices, and inter- 
sected here and there by fissures. 

ALWAYS SLOPING IN FORM. 

The normal form of the volcanoes in which the work of erup- 
tion takes place is that of a slope of debris arranged in a circular 
form round the outlet. Whether the volcano be a mere cone of 
ashes or mud only a few yards high, or rise into the regions of the 
clouds, vomiting streams of lava over an extent of ten or twenty 
miles, it none the less adheres to the regular form so long as the 
eruptive action is maintained in the same channel, and the debris 
thrown out falls equally on the external slopes. 

The beauty of the cone is increased by that of the crater. 
The terminal orifice from which the lava boils out well deserves, 
from the purity of its outline, its Greek name of " cup," and the 
harmony of its curve contrasts most gracefully with the declivity 
of the slope. In some volcanoes the symmetry of the architectural 
lines is so complete that the crater itself contains a cone placed 
exactly in the centre of the cavity, and pierced by a second crater 
in miniature, from which the vapor makes its escape. 

Volcanoes in which the eruptive action frequently changes its 
position — and these are the more numerous class — do not possess 
this elegance of outline. Very often the upheaved lava finds some 
weak place in the walls of the crater ; it hollows them out at first, 



344 CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 

and then, bringing- all its weiglit to bear on the rocks which oppose 
its passage, it nltimately completely breaks down the edge of the 
crater, leaving pernaps dnly one side standing. Among the 
Enropean volcanoes, Vesuvius is the best example of these rup- 
tured craters : before A. D. 79, the escarpments of La Somma, 
which now surround with their semicircular rampart the terminal 
cone of Vesuvius, were the real crater. The portion of it which 
no longer exists disappeared, and buried under its debris the towns 
of Herculaneum and Pompeii. 

INCREASING DIMENSIONS. 

Active volcanoes, however, never cease to increase in all their 
dimensions, and sooner or later the breach is ultimatel}^ repaired ; 
the remains of the former craters are gradually hidden under the 
growing slopes of the central cone. Thus a former crater on 
Etna, which was situated at a point three miles in a straight line 
from the present outlet, at the commencement of the Val del Bove, 
has been gradually obliterated by the lava of successive eruptions ; 
prolonged explorations on the part of MM. Seyell and Walters- 
hausen have been necessary in order to find it out. The normal 
form of Etna is that of a cone of debris placed upon a large dome 
with long slopes, becoming more and more gentle, and descending 
gracefully toward the sea. 

In fact, in most of the eruptions, the lava does not rise as far 
as the great crater, and breaks through the sides of the volcano 
so as to flow laterally over the flanks of Etna. These eruptions, 
succeeding one another in the course of centuries, bring about the 
necessary result of gradually enlarging the dome which consti- 
tutes the mass of the mountain, thus breaking the uniformity of 
the lateral talus. The same thing occurs with regard to Vesuvius 
on the side which faces the seacoast. There, the terminal cone 
stands on a kind of dome, which has been gradually formed by the 
coats of lava running one over the other. If Vesuvius continues to 
be the great volcanic outlet of Italy, and rises gradually into the 
sky by the superposition of lava and ashes, it cannot fail, some time 
or other, to assume a form similar to that of the Sicilian giant. 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 345 

The volcanoes whicli present cones of almost perfect regu- 
larity are those which have their terminal outlet alone in a state 
of activity, and vomit out a large quantity of ashes or other 
matter which glides readily over the slopei^. Among this class of 
mountains, those which attain any considerable elevation are 
distinguished by their majesty from all other peaks. Stromboli, 
although it is not more than 2600 feet in height, is one of the 
wonders of the Mediterranean. From its proud form, it will 
readily be understood that its roots plunge down into the sea to 
an enormous depth ; the slope of debris may be seen, so to speak, 
prolonged under the water down to the abysses of 3000 to 4000 
feet, which the sounding-line has reached at the bottom of the 
^olian Sea. 

At sight of it one feels as if suspended in the midst of the 
void, as if the ship was sailing in the air midway up the mountain. 
This feeling of admiration mingled with dread increases when 
this great pharos of the Mediterranean is approached during the 
night over the dark-waved sea. Then the sky above the summit 
seems all lighted up by the reflection of the lava, and a misty 
band of vapor may be dimly seen girdling round the body of the 
volcano. In the daytime the impression made is of a different 
character ; but it is none the less deep, for the real grandeur of 
Stromboli consists not so much in the immensity of the mass as 
in the harmony of its proportions. 

SACRED MOUNTAINS. 

Volcanic mountains of an ideal form are those which infant 
nations have most adored. Among these sacred mountains are 
the sublime Cotopaxi of the Andes, Orizaba of Mexico, Mauna- 
Ivoa of Hawaii, and Fusi-Yama of Japan. The volcanoes of Java, 
and chiefly those in the eastern portion of the island, also present 
a very majestic appearance on account of their isolation. 

Those on the western side are based upon an undulating 
plateau, which causes them to lose their appearance of height ; 
but on the east all the volcanic mountains rise up from verdant 
plains like islands above the waves of the sea, and command the 



346 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 



horizon far and wide with, their enormous cones. Between the 
Merapi and Lavoe mountains lies a depression, the highest ledge 
of which exceeds the level of the sea by only 312 feet. Between 
Lavoe and Villis the plain is 230 feet in height. Lastly, the 
plains which separate the Villis and Keloeet mountains nowhere 
attain an elevation of more than 200 feet above the ocean. 

In the external details of their conformation many of the vol- 





j^.t3iMt-,.»=nf>r* iT?g>Br-:^i 




A REMARKABLE VOLCANO CRATER, ISLE OF JAVA. 

canoes of Java present a regularit}^ of outline which is all the 
more striking, since they owe it in great part to the monsoon 
rains, the most destructive agents of the tropical regions. In 
beating against the mountains, the clouds let fall their burden of 
moisture on the slopes composed of ashes and loose scorise. The 
latter offer but a slight resistance to the action of the temporary 
torrents which carry them away, and, crumbling down into the 



CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 347 

plains wliicli surroTind the base of the volcano, are deposited in 
long slopes, like those caused by avalanches. 

In consequence of the fall of all this debris, the sides of the 
mountain are cut out at intervals by ravines or furrows, which 
gradually widen from the summit to the base of the mountains, 
and attain a depth of 200, 600, and 660 feet. There are some 
volcanoes, such as the Sumbing, in which these ravines assume 
so perfect a regularity that the whole mountain, with its equi- 
distant furrows and its intermediate walls, resembles a gigantic 
edifice based upon enormous buttresses, like the nave of a Gothic 

cathedral. 

BEAUTIFUL ISLAND. 

Formerly the beauty of the island and the fury of its vol- 
canoes were the cause of its being altogether dedicated to Siva, 
the god of destruction ; and in the very craters of the burning 
mountains the worshipers of Terror and Death were in the habit 
of building their temples. In many spots the ruins of these sanc- 
tuaries are discovered in the midst of trees and thickets, which 
the Arab conquerors have left to grow in the formidable cavities 
of the volcanoes. Semerce, the loftiest peak in the island, was 
the sacred mountain par excellence ; the Siimbing, which rises in 
the centre of the island, was the "nail which fastens Java to the 
earth." 

Even in our own time some faithful followers of Siva inhabit 
a sandy plain, more than four miles wide, which was once the 
crater of the Tengger volcano ; every year they proceed solemnly 
to pour rice on the summit of an eruptive cone, into the roaring 
mouth of the monster. In like manner, in New Zealand, the ever- 
smoking orifice of Tougariro was considered as the only place 
M^orthy of receiving the dead bodies of their great chiefs : when 
cast into the crater, the heroes went to sleep among the gods. 

But the volcanic divinities, like most of the other rulers in- 
voked by nations, did not content themselves with the fruits of 
the earth or the companionship of a few warriors ; they also de- 
manded blood, both by their subterranean roarings, by their 
thundering eruptions, and their devastating rivers of lava. In- 



348 CRATERS BELCHING TORRENTS OF STEAM. 

numerable sacrifices have been offered to volcanoes to appease 
their anger : impelled by a mingled feeling of fear and ferocity, 
the priests of not a few religions have cast victims with great 
pomp into the gaping hollows of these immense furnaces. 

Scarcely three centuries ago, when the disciples of Christi- 
anity were exterminated over the whole length and. breadth of 
Japan, the followers of the new religion were thrown by hundreds 
into one of the craters of the Unsen, one of the most beautiful 
volcanoes of the archipelago ; but this offering to the offended 
gods did not appease their anger, for, toward the end of the 
eighteenth century, this very same mountain and the neighboring 
summits caused by their eruptions one of the most frightful 
disasters of any that are mentioned in the history of volcanoes. 

Actuated by a feeling of dread very similar to that exhibited 
by the Japanese priests, the Christian missionaries in America 
recognized in the burning mountains of the New World not the 
work of a god, but that of the devil, and went in procession to the 
edge of the craters to exorcise them. A legend tells how the 
monks of Nicaragua climbed the terrible volcano of Momotombo 
in order to quiet it by their conjurations ; but they never returned ; 
the monster swallowed them up. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Various Kinds of Lava. — Beautiful Cave in Scotland. — 
Crevices in Volcanoes. — Snow Under Burning Dust. 

T AVA is the most important product of the volcanic fires. The 
-'— ' various kinds of lava differ very much in their external 
appearance, in the color of their substance, and in the variety of 
their crystals, but they are all composed of silicates of alumnia 
or magnesia, combined with protoxide of iron, potash or soda, and 
lime. When the feldspathic minerals predominate, the rock is 
generally of a whitish, grayish or yellowish hue, and receives the 
name of trachyte. When the lava contains an abundance of crys- 
tals of augite, hornblende, or titaniferous iron, it is heavier, of a 
darker color, and often more compact ; it then takes the generic 
formation of basalt. Numerous varieties, diversely designated 
by geologists, belong to this group. 

Of all the lavas, trachyte is the least fluid in its form. In 
many places rocks of this nature have issued from the earth in a 
pasty state, and have accumulated above the orifice in the shape 
of a dome, "Just like a mass of melted wax." In this way were 
formed the great domes of Auvergne, the Puys de Dome and de 
Sarcouy. In this district the flows of trachy tic lava are far inferior 
in length to the basaltic cheires ; the most important do not exceed 
four or five miles in length. 

At the present day, eruptions of trachyte are much more rare 
than those of other lavas; so much so, that certain authors class 
all the trachytic rocks among the formations of anterior ages. It 
is, however, ascertained that most of the American volcanoes and 
those of the Sunda Archipelago vomit out lava of this nature ; the 
last eruptions of the ^olian Isles, Lipari and Volcano, likewise 
produced only trachyte and pumice-stone. 

This latter substance resembles certain white, yellow, or 
greenish scoria, which issue like a frothy dross from the furnaces 

349 



350 PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 

of our ircn-works, and is, like tHe compact trachyte, of a felds- 
patliic nature. Some mountains are almost entirely composed of 
it ; among others, the Monte Bianco of Lipari, which, viewed from 
a distance, appears as if covered with snow. Long white flows, 
like avalanches, fill up all its ravines, from the summit of the 
mountain to the shore of the Mediterranean; the slightest move- 
ment caused by the tread of an animal or a gust of wind detaches 
from the surface of the slope hundreds of stones, which bound 
down to the foot of the incline, and are borne away by the waves 
which bathe the base of the mountain. 

In the southern part of the Tyrrhenean Sea, and especially 
in the vicinity of the Lipari (^olian) Islands, the water is some- 
times covered with these floating stones, almost like flakes of 
foam. In the Cordilleras the currents of fresh water convey the 
morsels of pumice to considerable distances. The River Amazon 
drifts down large quantities of pumice as far as its mouth, more 
than 3000 miles from the place where it fell into the river. Bates 
says that the Indians, who live too far away from the volcanoes 
even to know of their existence, assert that these stones, floating 
down the river by the side of their canoes, are surely solidified 

foam. 

APPEARANCE OF VARIOUS LAVAS. 

The external appearance of various lavas differs even more 
than their chemical composition. The more or less perfect state 
of fluidity, and the presence in them of a greater or less quantity 
of bubbles of vapor, give a very different texture to rocks which 
are composed of the same elements. Pumice-stone has the 
appearance of sponge ; obsidian looks like black glass, and some- 
times it is even semi-transparent. 

It is entirely liquid, and issues from the interior ot the earth 
like a stream flowing rapidly over the steeper slopes, and coagu- 
lating slowly in large sheets in the low ground and on the gentle 
inclines whither its own weight has drawn it. The surface of 
obsidian — for instance, that of Teneriffe — shines with a vitreous 
glitter ; the cleavage of the rock is clean and sharp. 

Some less degree of fluidity in the current of lava gives it 



PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 351 

sometimes tlie appearance of resiu ; this is tlie stone wliicli is 

called peclistein (pitch-stone). When the rock, issuing in a state 

of fusion from the bosom of the mountain, becomes still cooler, it 

contains innumerable perfectly-formed crystals, and only owes its 

fluidity to the particles of vapor in its pores. The external layer 

of the lava is also immediately covered with scoria which float in 

flakes on the fiery stream. These scoria, too, assume a great variety 

of shapes ; some are mammillated, others are exceedingly rough 

and irregular. 

In the Dj ebel-Hauran, near the crater of Abu-Ganim, there is 

an infinity of needles of red lava, about a yard high on the average, 

and bent in various directions toward the surface of the plateau; 

one might often fancy them flames half beaten down under the 

pressure of the wind. According to M. Wetzstein, these strange 

stone needles proceed from an eruption of flaky lava. In the 

Sandwich Islands, and in the Island of Reunion, certain cr3^stals 

of a ferruginous appearance are grouped at the outlet of the crater 

in herbaceous forms of the most curious and sometimes elegant 

character. 

RESEMBLE HEMP TOW. 

Some of the products of the volcano of Mauna-Loa and Kil- 
auea resemble the tow of hemp ! These are the whitish filaments 
which are sometimes carried away by the wind ; the Kanakes used 
to consider them as the hair of Pele, the goddess of fire. 

Among the old basaltic lavas there are some to which the 
name of "basalt" is more specially applied, which present a col- 
umnar disposition with wonderful regularity. These form the 
enormous monuments, much more imposing than those of man, 
which seem as if they had been constructed by giant builders, 
turning their mighty hands to the noble art of architecture, which 
is still practiced, though on a smaller scale, by us their feeble 
descendants. These magnificent colonnades of basalt are every- 
where attributed to giants. 

In Ireland, on the coast of Antrim, the summits of 40,000 
prisms, leveled pretty regularly by the waves of the sea, and 
resembling a vast paved quay, have received the name of the 



352 PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 

Giant's Causeway. In Scotland, tlie beautiful cave of the Isle of 
Staffa, hollowed out by the action of the waves between two ranges 
of basaltic shafts, is celebrated as the work of Fingal, the demi- 
god. In the Sicilian Sea, the Faraglioni Isles, or Isles of the 
Cyclopes, situated not far from Catania, at the base of Etna, are 
looked upon by tradition as the rocks cast by Polyphemus on the 
ships of Ulysses and his companions. Many of these prisms are 
from lOO to i6o feet high, and are not less than from six to six- 
teen feet in thickness. 

Near Fair Head and the Giant's Causeway some of the shafts 
^connected with the perpendicular cliff of the headland are nearly 
400 feet in height. In the Isle of Skye, some of the columns, 
according to M'Culloch's statement, are still higher. On the 
other hand, there are also colonnades in miniature, each shaft of 
which is not more than three quarters of an inch to an inch from 
the summit to the base ; instances of these are found in the basalts 
of the hill of Morven in Scotland. 

BEDS OF LAVA ARRANGED IN COLUMNS. 

Some geologists have thought that basaltic columns could 
not be formed except under the pressure of enormous masses of 
water ; but a comparative study of these rocks in different parts 
of the world has proved that several beds of lava are arranged in 
columns at heights considerably above the level of the sea. In 
this colonnade-like formation of lava there is, however, no phe- 
nomenon which is entirely peculiar to basalt. Trachyte, also, 
sometimes assumes this form, and M. Fouque has discovered a 
magnificent instance of it in the island of Milo, in which there is 
a cliff composed of prismatic shafts 320 feet in height. 

Masses of mud when dried in the sun, the alluvium of rivers, 
beds of clay or tufa, and, in general, all matter which, in conse- 
quence of the loss of its moisture, passes from a pasty to a solid 
state, either in a state of nature or in our manufactories and 
dwellings, likewise assume a columnar structure similar to that 
of the basaltic lava. In fact, the entire mass, when gradually 
losing the moisture whicji swelled out its substance, can not con- 



PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES 353 

tract so as to shift tlie position of all its particles toward tlie 
centre ; certain points remain fixed, and round each of these the 
contraction of a portion of the mass takes place. 

In basalt, in particular, it is the lower layer which assumes the 
columnar structure, for these alone cool gently enough to allow 
the phenomena of contraction to follow the normal course. The 
highest portion of the mass, being deprived, immediately after its 
issue from the earth, of the caloric and the steam which filled its 
pores, is almost immediately transformed into a more or less 
rough and cracked mass. But this very crust protects the rest of 
the lava against any radiation, and serves as a covering to the 
semi-crystalline columns which, by the continual contraction of 
their particles, are slowly separated from the rest of the mass. 

A FOREST OF PRISMS. 

When a section of a bed of basaltic lava has been laid bare by 
the water of a river, the waves of the ocean, or earthquake, the 
rough stones of the top layers may be seen lying, with or without 
any gradual transition, on a forest of prisms, sometimes rudi- 
mentary in their shape, but often no less regular in their shape 
than if they had been carved out by the hand of man. Most are 
of a hexagonal form ; others, which were probably subject to less 
favorable conditions, have four, five or seven faces ; but all are 
definitely separated from one another by their particles gathering 
round the central axis. 

Mr. Poulett Scrope describes a fact which proves the enormous 
power of this contractile force. The colonnade of Burzet in 
Vivarais, contains numerous nodules of olivine, many of which 
sre as large as a man's fist : and, in spite of their extreme hard- 
ness, have been divided into two pieces, each fixed in one of two 
adjacent columns. Although the two corresponding surfaces have 
been polished by the infiltration of water, it is impossible to doubt 
that the two separate portions were not once joined in the same 
nodule. 

As natural philosophers have verified by experiments on 

j various viscous substances, basaltic shafts are always formed per- 
23-s. F. 



854 PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 

pendicularly to the surface of refrigeration. Now, this surface 
being inclined, according to the locality, in a diversity of ways, 
the result is, that the columns may assume a great variety of 
directions in their position. Although most of them are vertical, 
on account of the cooling taking place in an upward direction, 
others, as at St. Helena, take a horizontal direction, and resemble 
trunks of trees heaped upon a wood-pile. 

In other places, as at the Coupe d'Ayzac in Auvergne, the 
columns of a denuded cliff are arranged in the form of a fan, so 
as to lean regularly on the wall of the cliff as well as on the 
ground of the valley. At Samoskoe, in Hungary, a sheet of 
columnar basalt, very small at its origin, spreads out from the 
top of a rock like the water of a cascade, and hangs suspended 
over a precipice, resembling a cupola which has lost its base. 
Elsewhere masses of basaltic pillars radiate in every direction like 
the weapons in an immense trophy of arms. 

LIKE GIGANTIC BAMBOOS. 

An exact prismatic form, is not, however, the only shape 
assumed by the cooling lava. The phenomenon of contraction 
takes place in different ways, according to the nature of the 
erupted matter, the declivity of the slopes, and all the other sur- 
rounding circumstances. Thus, in consequence of the sinking of 
the rock, most basaltic prisms exhibit at intervals a kind of joint, 
which gives the columns a kind of resemblance to gigantic bam- 
boos. In some lavas these joints are so numerous, and the edges 
of the stone are so eaten away by the weather, that the shafts are 
converted into piles of spheroids of a more or less regular form. 

At the volcano of Bertrich, in the Bifel, one might fancy 
them a heap of cheeses ; whence comes the name of " Cheese 
Cave," which is given to one of the caverns which opens in the 
flow of the lava. Sometimes, too, crystals scattered about in the 
midst of the mass have served as nuclei to globular concretions 
formed of numerous concentric layers. Lastly, many currents of 
molten matter present a tabular or schistose structure, caused, 
like that of slate, by the pressure of the superincumbent masses. 



PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 355 

Althougli lava, wlien cooled, is easy enough to study, it is 
more difficult to observe with any exactitude the molten matter 
immediately on its exit from the craters or fissures ; besides this, 
the opportunities for study which are afforded to savants are 
sometimes very dangerous. Long years often elapse before an 
enquirer can notice at his ease, and without fear of sudden explo- 
sions, the mouths of ^tna or Vesuvius filling up to the brink 
with boiling lava. 

Stromboli is the only volcano in Europe in which this 
phenomenon occurs regularly at closely-recurring intervals, some- 
times of only five minutes, or even more frequently. When an 
observer stands on the highest edge of the crater, he sees, about 
300 feet below him, the waves of a matter which shines like molten 
iron, and tosses and boils up incessantly ; sometimes it swells up 
like an enormous blister, which suddenly bursts, darting forth 
eddies of vapor accompanied by solid fragments. 

HAS BOILED FOR CENTURIES. 

For centuries past the lava has never ceased to boil in the 
cavity of Stromboli, and it is but very rarely that a period of even 
a few hours lapses without molten matter overflowing. Thus the 
crater, which, during the day, is white with steam, and during the 
night red with the glare of the lava, has served as a light-house 
for mariners ever since the first vessel ventured upon the 
Tyrrhenian Sea. 

In Nicaragua, to the north of the Great Lake, the volcano of 
Masaya (or " Devil's Mouth ") presents a spectacle similar to that 
of Stromboli, but grander, and perhaps still more regular. After 
having remained in a state of repose for nearly two centuries, from 
1670 to 1853, the monster — which has received the name it bears 
from the frightful turbulence of its burning waves — resumed all 
its former activity. In this crater the enormous bubbles of lava, 
which ascend from the bottom of the abyss and throw out a shower 
of burning stones, break forth in a general way every quarter of 
an hour. 

The volcano of Isalco, not far from Sonsonate, in the State of 



356 PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 

San Salvador, is also one of the most curious on account of its 
regularity. Its first breaking out was noticed on the 29th of March, 
1783, and since this date it has almost always continued to increase 
in size by throwing outside its cavity ashes and stones. Some of 
its eruptions, remarkable for their comparative violence, have been 
accompanied by flows of lava ; but, generally, the crater of Isalco 
confines itself to hurling burning matter to a height of 39 to 46 
feet above its crater ; explosions follow one another at intervals of 
every two minutes. The total elevation of the cone of debris above 
the village of Isalco being 735 feet, and the slope of the side of 
the mass being, on the average, 35 degrees, M. von Seebach, one 
of the observers of the volcano, has been able to calculate approxi- 
mately the bulk and regular increase of the mountain. In 1865 
the mass of debris was about 35,000,000 of cubic yards, giving an 
increase of about 491,000 cubic yards every year, or 56 cubic yards 
every hour. The volcano, therefore, might be looked upon as a 
gigantic hour-glass. 

WORLD-RENOWNED CRATER. 

Of all the craters in the world, the one which most astonishes 
those who contemplate it is the crater of Kilauea, in the island of 
Hawaii. This volcanic outlet opens at more than 3900 feet of 
elevation on the sides of the great mountain of Mauna-Loa, which 
is itself crowned by a magnificent funnel-shaped crater 2735 yards 
across from one brink to the other. The elliptical crater of Kilauea 
is no less than threemiles in length and seven miles in circumfer- 
ence. The hollow of this abyss is filled by a lake of lava, the 
level of which varies from year to year, sometimes rising and 
sometimes falling like water in a well. 

In a general way, it lies about 600 to 900 feet below the outer 
edge, and, in order to study its details, it is necessary to get on 
to a ledge of black lava which extends round the whole circum- 
ference of the gulf; this is the solidified edge of a former sheet 
of molten matter, similar to those circular benches of ice which, 
in northern countries, border the banks of a lake, and even in 
spring still mark the level the water has sunk from. The surface 



PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 357 

Of the sea of fire is generally covered by a thick crust over its 
whole extent ; here and there the red lava-waves spring up like the 
water of a lake through the broken ice. Jets of vapor whistle 
and hiss as they escape, darting out showers of burning scoria, 
and forming cones of ashes on the crust 60 to 100 feet in height, 
which are so many volcanoes in miniature. 

Intense heat radiates from the immense crater, and a kind of 
hot blast makes its way through all the chinks in the vertical 
walls of the sides. In the midst of the hot vapors, one feels as 
if lost in a vast furnace. During the night time an observer 
might fancy himself surrounded with flames ; the atmosphere 
itself, colored by the red reflection of the vent holes of the volcano, 
seems to be all on fire. 

RUSHES THROUGH THE OPENING. 

The level or the fire lake of Kilauea is incessantly changing. 
In proportion as fresh lava issues forth from the subterranean 
furnace, the broken crust afl"ords an outlet to other sheets of 
molten matter and fresh heaps of scoria, and gradually the boil- 
ing mass rises from ledge to ledge, and ultimately reaches the 
upper edge of the basin. Sooner or later, however, the level 
rapidly sinks. The fact is, that the burning mass contained in 
the depths of the abyss gradually melts the lower walls of solid 
lava ; these walls ultimately give way at some weak points in 
their circumference, a crevice is produced in the outer face of the 
volcano, and the liquid matter, " drawn off'' like wine from a vat, 
rushes through the opening made for it. 

The flow increases the orifice by the action of its weight on 
the sill of the opening, and by melting the rocks which oppose its 
passage, and then, running down over the slopes, flows into the 
sea, forming promontories on the shore. In 1840 the crater was 
full to the brink, when a crack suddenly opened in the side of the 
mountain. This fissure extended to a distance of 131 feet from 
its stai ting-point, and vomited forth a stream of lava 37 miles 
long and 16 miles wide, which entirely altered the outline of the 
sea-coast, and destroyed all the fish in the adjacent waters. Mr. 



358 PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 

Dana estimated tlie total mass of tliis enormous flow as equal co 
7,200,000 cubic yards — tliat is, to a solid body fifty times as great 
as the quantity of eartb dug out in cutting through the Isthmus 
of Suez. 

The enormous basin of Kilauea, 1476 feet deep, remained 
entirely empty for some time, and the former lake of lava left no 
other trace of its existence than a solid ledge like those which 
had been formed at the time of previous eruptions. Since this 
date the great cauldron of lava has been several times filled and 
several times emptied, either altogether or in part. 

OUTLET FOR OVERFLOW. 

Almost all the volcanoes which rise to a great height, 
get rid, like Kilauea, of their overflow of lava through fissures 
which open in their side walls. In fact, the column of molten 
matter which the pressure of the gas beneath raises in the 
pipe of the crater is of an enormous weight, and every inch 
it ascends toward the mouth of the crater represents an expense of 
force which seems prodigious. The more or less hypothetical 
calculations which have been made as to the degree of pressure 
necessary for the steam to be able to act on the lava-furnace lead 
to the belief that the outlet-conduits of volcanoes, and conse- 
quently the mass of liquid stone to be lifted, are not less than 
nine miles in depth. Various geologists — among others Sartorius 
von Waltershausen, the great explorer of Etna — believe that the 
volcano-shafts are of a still more considerable depth. The rocks 
of the terrestrial surface, limestone, granite, quartz, or mica, are 
of a specific gravity two and a half times superior to that of water, 
while the planet itself, taken as a whole, weighs nearly five and a 
half times as much as the same mass of distilled water; the density 
of the interior layers must therefore increase from the circum- 
ference to the center. With regard to the proportion of this 
increase, it is established by a calculation, the whole responsi- 
bility of which must rest upon its authors. Baron Waltershausen 
has ascertained, by means of a great number of weighings, that the 
lava of Etna and that of Iceland have a specific gravity of 2. 9 11. 



PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 359 

The presumed consequence of this fact is that the rocks 
thrown out by the volcanoes of Sicily and Iceland proceed from a 
depth of seventy-seven to seventy-eight miles (?). Thus the shaft 
which opens at the bottom of the crater of Etna would be no less than 
seventy-seven miles deep, and the lava which boils in this abyss 
would be lifted by a force of 36,000 atmospheres, an idea altogether 
incomprehensible by our feeble imaginations. There would, then, be 
nothing astonishing in the fact that a mass of lava, which is 
sufficiently heavy to balance a pressure of this kind, should, in a 
great many eruptions, melt and break through the weaker parts of 
its walls, instead of ascending some hundreds or thousands of 
feet higher, so as to run out over the edge of the upper crater. 

When the side of the mountain opens, and affords a passage 
to the lava, the fissure is always perceptibly vertical, and those 
which are continued to the summit pass through the very mouth 
of the volcano. In a general way, these fissures of eruption are 
of considerable length, and are sufficiently wide to form an impass- 
able precipice. Before these fissures become obliterated by the lava 
or by other debris — such as the snow and earth of avalanches — 
they may be traced out by the eye as deep furrows hollowed out 
on the mountain side. 

DEPRESSIONS FILLED WITH SNOW. 

In 1669 the lateral fissure, of ^tna extended over more than 
two-thirds of the southern side — from the plains of Nicolosi to the 
terminal gulf of the great crater. In like manner, in the Isle of 
Jan Mayen, the volcano of Beerenberg, 7514 feet high, presents 
from top to bottom a long depression filled up with snow, which is 
nothing else than a fissure of eruption. On other mountains, 
especially in Montserrat,Guadeloupe,and Martinique, these fissures 
have assumed such dimensions that the peaks themselves have 
been completely split in two. 

Through outlets of this kind the lava jets out, first making 
its appearance at the upper part, where the declivity is generally 
steeper, then springing out below on the more gentle slopes of the 
lower regions of the mountain. 



360 



PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 



At the source itself the lava is altogether fluid, and flows w-ith 
considerable speed — sometimes, on steep slopes, faster than a 
horse can gallop; but the course of the molten stone soon slackens, 
and the liquid, hitherto dazzling ^^^th its light is covered by 
brow-n or red scoria, like those of iron just come out of a 
furnace. These scoria come together, and, combining, soon 
leave no interstices between them beyond narrow vent-holes, 
through which the molten matter escapes. The scoria then form 
a crust, which is incessantly breaking with a metallic noise, but 
gradually consolidates into a perfect tunnel round the river of 
fire ; this is the cheire, thus named on account of the asperities 
which bristle on its surface. 

STANDING ON A THIN SURFACE. 

Any one may safely venture on the arch-shaped crust, although 
only a few inches above the mass in state of fusion, without any 
fear of being burnt just as in winter we trust ourselves on the 
sheets of ice which cover a running stream. The pressure of the 
lava succeeds in breaking through its shell only at the lower 
parts of its flow, in spots where the waves of burning sione fall 
with all their weight. Then the envelope is suddenly ruptured 
and the mass springs out like water from a sluice, pushing before 
it the resounding scoria, and swelling out gently ii\ the form of 
an enormous blister ; it then again becomes covered with a solid 
crust, which is again broken through by a fresh ett:ort of the 
lava. 

Thus the river, surrounding itself ^\-ith dikes, which it con- 
stantly breaks through, gradually descends over the slopes, terrible 
and inexorable, so long as the original stream does not cease to 
flow. The only means of diverting the curreut is to modify the 
incline in front of it, either by opposing obstacles to it to throw it 
to either side, or by preparing a road for it b}- digging deep 
trenches, or b}- opening up above some lateral outlet for the 
pent-up lava. In 1669, at the time of the great eruption which 
threatened to swallow up Catania, all these varioui? means were 
adopted in order to save the to\\Ti. On one side rlic inhabitants 



PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 3^^ 

worked at consolidating the rampart, and placed obstacles across 
the path of the current to turn it toward the south. 

Other workmen, furnished with shovels and mattocks, ascended 
along the edge of the flow, and, in spite of the resistance offered 
by the peasants, tried to pierce throuh the shell of scoria, and thus, 
by tapping the stream, to open fresh outlets for the molten matter. 
These means of defense parth' succeeded, and the terrible current 
which, at its source near Nicolosi, had been able to melt and pierce 
through the volcanic cone of Monpilieri at its thickest point 
i^this cone standing in its path) was turned from its course 
toward the centre of Catania, and destroyed nothing but the 
suburbs. 

The radiation from the lava being arrested bv the crust of 
scoria, which is a ver^'bad conductor of heat, the temperature of the 
air surrounding a flow of lava rises but verv slightly. The Neapolitan 
guides have no fear in approaching the Vesuvianlava in order to 
stamp the rough medals made of it, which they sell to foreigners. 
At a distance of a few 3*ards from the vent-holes in the cheire the 
trees of Etna continue to grow and blossom, and some clumps, 
indeed, mav be seen flourishing on an islet of vegetable earth b'ing 
between two branches of a flow of burning lava. And yet, b}"- a 
contrast which at first sight seems incomprehensible, it sometimes 
happens that trees which are distant from an\' visible flow of 
molten matter suddenly wither and die. 

VINEYARDS BLIGHTED. 

Thus, in 1S52, at the time of the great eruption from the 
\'al del Bove, on the eastern slopes of Mount Etna, vineyards 
and vines, covering a considerable area, and situated at a distance 
of more than half a mile below the front of the flow, were sud- 
denly dried up, just as if the blast of a fire had burnt up their 
foliage. In order to explain this curious phenomena, it is neces- 
sary- to admit that some rivulets of the great lava river must have 
penetrated under the earth througli the fissures of the soil, and 
have filled up a subterranean ca\4ty in the mountain exactly 
below the vineyards that were destroyed ; the roots being con- 



3(32 PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 

sumed, or deprived of tlie necessary moisture, the trees them- 
selves could not do otherwise than perish. 

On lofty mountains in a state of eruption, the masses of 
snow and ice, which are covered by the fiery currents which issue 
from the volcanic fissures, do not always melt, and some have been 
preserved under the scoria for centuries, or even thousands of 
3'ears. Lyell has discovered them under the lava of Etna, 
American geologists under the masses thrown out by the crater of 
Mount Hooker, Darwin under the ashes in Deception Island, in 
the Terra del Fuego, M. Philippi under the flows of the volcano 
Nuevo de Chilian, which in 1861 erupted through a glacier. 

There every bed of snow which falls during the winter 

remains perfect under the coat of burning dust which is ejected 

from the outlet of eruption, and sections made through the mass 

of debris show for a great depth the alternate black and white 

strata of the volcanic ashes and the snow. In i860 the crater of 

the mountain of Kutlagaya, in Iceland, hurled out simultaneously 

into the air lumps of lava and pieces of ice all intermingled 

together. 

BURIED LAVA STILL BURNING. 

In like manner, the immense flows of lava in Iceland have 
left in a perfect state of preservation the trunks of the Sequoias, 
and other American trees, which adorned the surface of the island 
during the ages of the Tertiary epoch, at a time when the mean 
temperature of this country was 48° (Fahr.); that is, 42° to 44° 
above that which it is at present. Although the radiation from 
the lava is so slight that it neither melts the ice nor burns the 
trunks of buried trees, yet, on the other hand, the heat and fluidity 
of the lava are maintained in the central part of the flow for a 
very considerable number of years. Travelers state that they 
have found deeply buried lava which was still burning after it had 
remained for a century on the mountain side. 

Although the lava covers up and often preserves the snow 
and the ice, which are doubtless defended against the heat by a 
cushion of spheroidal particles of humidity, it immediately con- 
verts into steam the water with which it comes in contact. The 



PRODUCTS OF VOLCANOES. 363 

liquid mass, being suddenly augmented to about 1800 times its 

former volume, explodes like an enormous bombshell, and hurls 

away, like projectiles, all the objects which, surround it. A serious 

occurrence of this kind is recorded, which took place in 1843, ^ 

few days after the formation of a fissure in Mount Etna, from 

which a current of molten matter issued, making its way toward 

the plain of Bronte. 

A crowd of spectators, who had come from the town, were 

examining from a distance the threatening mass, the peasants 

were cutttng down the trees in the fields, others were carrying off 

in haste the goods from their cottages, when suddenly the 

extremity of the flow was seen to swell up like an enormous 

blister, and then to burst, darting forth in every direction clouds 

of steam and volleys of burning stones. Everything was 

destroyed by this terrible explosion — ^-trees, houses and cultivated 

ground ; and it is said that sixty-nine persons, who were knocked 

down by the concussion, perished immediately, or in the space of 

a few hours. 

LIKE GUNPOWDER. 

This disaster was occasioned by the negligence of an agri- 
culturist, who had not emptied the reservoir on his farm ; the 
water, being suddenly converted into steam, had caused the lava 
to explode with all the force of gunpowder. 

The quantity of molten matter which is ejected by a fissure 
in one single eruption is enormous. It is known that the current 
of Kilauea, in 1840, exceeded 6550 millions of cubic yards. That 
which proceeded from Mauna-Loa, in 1835, produced a still larger 
quantity of lava, and extended as far as a point seventy-six miles 
from the crater. Flows of this kind are certainly rare ; but there 
are some recorded in the earth's history which are still more con- 
siderable. Thus the volcano of Skaptar-Jokul, in Iceland, was 
cleft asunder in 1873, and gave vent to two rivers of fire, each of 
which filled up a valley ; one attained a length of fifty miles, 
with a breadth of fifteen miles ; the other was of less dimensions, 
but the depth of the mass was in some places as much as 492 
feet. A subterranean fissure, ninety-nine miles in length, which 



364 PRODUCTS OF VOLCAriOES. 

cleaves in two the ground of Iceland, was doubtless filled up witli 
lava along its entire length, for hillocks of eruption sprung up 
on various points of this straight line. 

It has been calculated that the whole of the lava evacuated 
by the Skaptar in this great eruption was not less in bulk than 
655,000 millions of cubic j^ards, a mass equivalent to the whole 
volume of Mont Blanc ; it would be a quantity sufficient to cover 
the whole earth with a film of lava 0.0393 i^^^ i^ thickness. As 
to the celebrated flow from the Monti Rossi, which threatened to 
destroy Catania, in 1669, it seems very trifling in comparison ; it 
contained a mass of molten stone which was estimated at 13 10 
millions of cubic yards. On how trifling a scale, therefore, are 
these ordinary- eruptions compared with the surface of the globe ! 
They are, however, phenomena perceptible enough to man, in all 
his infinite littleness. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Volcanic Projectiles. — Explosions op Ashes. ^Subordinate 
Volcanoes. — Mountains Reduced to Dust. — Flashes 
AND Flames Proceeding from Volcanoes. 

'X'HE lava swelling up in enormous blisters above tbe fissures 
-■■ from whicii it flows in a current over the slopes is far from 
being tbe only substance ejected from volcanic mountains. When 
the pent-up vapor escapes from the crater with a sudden explo- 
sion, it carries with it lumps of molten matter, which describe their 
curve in the air, and fall at a greater or less distance on the slope 
of the cone, according to the force with which they were ejected 

These are the volcanic projectiles, the immense showers of 
which, traced in lines of fire on the dark sky, contribute so much 
during the night time to the magnificent beauty of volcauic erup- 
tions. These projectiles have already become partially cooled by 
their radiation in the air, and when they fall are already solidified 
on the outside, but the inside nucleus remains for a long time 
in a liquid or pasty state. The form of these projectiles is often 
of an almost perfect regularity. 

Each sphere is in this case composed of a series of concentric 
envelopes, which have evidently been arranged in the order of their 
specific gravity during the flight of the projectile through the air. 
The dimensions of these projectiles vary in each eruption ; some 
of them are one or more yards in thickness ; others are nothing 
but mere grains of sand, and are carried by the wind to great 
distances. 

In most eruptions, these balls of lava, still in a fluid and 

burning state, constitute but a small part of the matter thrown 

out by the mountain. The largest proportion of the stone ejected 

proceeds from the walls of the volcano itself, which break up under 

the pressure of the gas, and fly off in volleys, mingled with the 

products of the new eruption. This is the origin of the dust or 

365 



366 VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 

ashes which some craters vomit out in such large quantities, which 
too, are the causes of such terrible disasters. 

When the impetus of the gas confines itself to forming a 
fissure in the side of the mountain, the fragments of rocks which 
are broken up and reduced to powder are compratively small in 
quantity. They are projected in clouds out of the fissure, and, 
falling like hail round the orifice, are gradually heaped up in the 
form of a cone on the side of the mountain from which they arose. 
In Europe, the enormous circumference of Etna presents more 
than 700 of these subordinate volcanoes, some scarcely higher than 
an Esquimaux hut, and others, like the Monti Rossi, Monte 
Minardo, Alonte Ilici, several hundred yards high, and more than 
half a mile wide at the base. 

SCANTY GROWTH OF BROOM. 

There are some which are entirely sterile, or covered only by 
a scanty vegetation of broom, and are marked out by a red, yellow, 
or even black color on the main body of Etna ; those situated on 
the lower slopes are covered with trees or planted with vines, and 
sometimes contain admirable crops in the very cavity on their sum- 
mit. These cones of ashes, springing up like a progeny on the 
vast sides of their mother mountain, give to Etna a singular 
appearance of vital personality and of creative energy. The sam^ 
phenomenon occurs on the volcanoes of Hawaii, which carry on 
their declivities thousands of subordinate cones. 

In the formation of these hillocks a real division of labor takes 
place. The rocks and heavier stones fall either on the edge of the 
crater or in the gulf itself. The ashes and light dust are shot up 
to a much greater height, and, hurried along by the impulse of 
the wind, fall far and wide, like the chaff of corn winnowed in a 
threshing-floor. Thus the slope of the cone toward which the wind 
directs the ashes is always more elongated, and rises to a greater 
height on the edge of the crater. On Etna, where the wind gen- 
erally blows in the direction of west to east, the eastern slope of 
the hillocks is more developed than on the opposite side. It must, 
perhaps, be attributed to the action of the wind blowing on tho 



VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 367 

heiglits, and not, as Siemsen, the geologist, supposes, to the obli- 
quity of the shaft of the crater, that all the scoria and ashes fall 
to the north of the orifice of the volcano Nuevo de Chilian, in 
Chili. 

The phenomena which take place when the ashes issue from 
the mouth of the crater itself do not differ from those which are 
observed at the outlets in fissures. In the former case, however, 
the mass of rocks reduced to powder is so considerable that the 
rain of ashes assumes all the proportions of a cataclj^sm. It has 
sometimes happened that, during a paroxysm of volcanic energy, 
the whole summit of a mountain, for a depth of several thousands 
of feet, has been hurled into the air, mingled with a cloud of vapor 
and the smoke of burning lava. 

Thus Etna, if we are to believe ^lianus, was once much 
loftier than it is in our time, and on the north of the present 
terminal cone there may, in fact, be noticed a kind of platform 
which seems to have been the base of a summit twice as high as 
the present crest. The whole of the Val del Bove is probably an 
empty space left by the disappearance of a former cone. 

REDUCED TO POWDER. 

With regard to Vesuvius, it is known that, in the year 79 of 
the present era, the whole of that part of the mountain which was 
turned toward the sea was reduced to powder, and that the debris 
of the cone, nothing of which now remains except the semicircular 
inclosure of La Somma, buried three towns and a vast extent of 
plain. The ashes and dust, mingled with white vapor rising in 
thick eddies, ascended in a column to a point far above the summit 
of the volcano, until, having reached those regions of the atmos- 
phere where the rarefied air could no longer sustain them, they 
spread out into a wide umbrella-like shape, the falling dust of 
which obscured the sky. 

Pliny the younger compared this vault of ashes and smoke to 
the foliage of an Italian pine curving at an immense height over 
the mountain. Since this memorable epoch the height of the 
column of vapor has been measured which has issued from Vesu- 



368 VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 

vius at fhe time of several great eruptions, and it has been some- 
times found tliat it readied 23,000 to 26,000 feet ; that is, six times 
higher than the summit of the volcano itself. 

o 

One of these explosions of entire summits which caused most 
terror in modern times was that of the volcano of Coseguina, a 
hillock of about 500 feet high, situated on a promontory to the 
south of the Bay of Fonseca, in Central America. The debris 
hurled into the air spread over the sky in a horrible arch several 
hundreds of miles in width, and covered the plains for a distance 
of 25 miles with a layer of dust at least 16 feet thick. At the 
very foot of the hill the headland advanced 787 feet into the bay, 
and two new islands, formed of ashes and stones falling from the 
volcano, rose in the midst of the water several miles away. 

PUMICE-STONE ON THE WATER. 

Beyond the districts close round the crater, the bed of dust, 
which fell gradually, became thinner, but it was carried by the 
wind more than forty degrees of longitude toward the west, and 
the ships sailing in those waters penetrated with difficulty the 
layer of pumice-stone spread out on the sea. To the north, the 
rain of ashes was remarked at Truxillo, Honduras, and at Chiapas, 
in Mexico ; on the south, it reached Carthagena, Santa Martha, 
and other towns of the coast of Grenada ; to the east, being carried 
by the counter current of the trade-winds, it fell on the plains of 
St. Ann's, in Jamaica, at a distance of 800 miles. The area of 
land and water on which the dust descended must be estimated at 
1,500,000 square miles, and the mass of matter vomited out could 
not be less than 65,500 million cubic yards. 

The uproar of the breaking up of the mountain was heard as 
far as the high plateaux of Bogota, situated 1025 miles away in a 
straight line. While the formidable cloud was settling down 
round the volcano, thick darkness filled the air. For forty-three 
hours nothing could be seen except by the sinister light of the 
flashes darting from the columns of steam, and the red glare of 
the vent holes opening in the mountain. 

To escape from this prolonged night, the rain of ashes, and 



VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 369 

the burning atmospliere, the inhabitants who dwelt at the foot of 
Coseguina lied in all haste along a road running by the black 
water of the Bay of Fonseca. Men, women, children, and domes- 
tic animals travelled painfully along a difhcult path, through 
quagmires and marshes. So great, it is said, was the terror of all 
animated beings during this long night of horror, that the ani- 
mals, themselves, such as monkeys, serpents, and birds, joined the 
band of fugitives, as if they recognized in man a being endowed with 
intelligence superior to their own. 

A large number of volcanoes have diminished in height, or 
have, indeed, entirely disappeared, in consequence of explosions, 
which reduced their rocks to powder, and distributed them in thick 
sheets on the ground adjacent. Mount Baker, in California, and 
the Japanese volcano of Unsen, have thus raised the level of the 
surrounding plains at the expense of a diminution in their own 
volume. In 1638, the summit of the peak of Timor, which might 
be seen like a light-house from a distance of 270 miles, exploded, 
and blew up into the air, and the water collecting, formed a lake 
in the enoroiious void caused by the explosion. 

GREAT DESTRUCTION OF LIFE. 

In 1815, Timboro, a volcano in the island of Sumbara, de- 
stroyed more men than the artillery of both of the armies engaged 
on the battle-field of Waterloo. In the island of Sumatra, 550 
miles to the west, the terrible explosion was heard, and, for a 
radius of 300 miles round the mountain, a thick cloud of ashes, 
which obscured the sun, made it dark like night even at noonday. 
This immense quantity of debris, the whole mass of which was, it 
is said, equivalent to thrice the bulk of Mont Blanc, fell over an 
area larger than that of Germany. 

The pumice-stone which floated in the sea was more than a 

yard in thickness, and it was with some difiiculty that ships could 

make theirway through it. The popular imagination was so deeply 

impressed by this cataclysm, that at Bruni, in the island of 

Borneo, whither heaps of the dust vomited out by Timboro, 

870 miles away to the south, had been carried by the wind, they 
24hS. f. 



370 VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 

date tlieir j-ears froiu '' the great fall of ashes." It is the com- 
meucemeut of au era for the inhabitants of Bruni, just as the 
flight of Mohammed was for the Mussulmans. 

The friction of the steam against the innumerable particles 
of solid matter which are darted out into the air is the principal 
cause of the electricity which is developed so plentifully during 
most volcanic eruptions. In consequence of this friction, which 
operates simultaneousl}^ at all points in the atmosphere which 
are reached by the volcanic ashes, and vapor, sparks flash out 
which are developed into lightning. The skies are lighted up 
not onl}' by the reflection from the lava, but also by coruscations 
of lioht which dart from amid the clouds. 

When the vast canopy of vapor spreads over the summit of 
the mountains, numerous spirals of fire whirl round on each side 
of the clouds, which, as they unroll, resemble the foliage of a 
gigantic tree. Doubtless, also, the encounter of two aerial cur- 
rents ma}^ contribute to produce lightning in the columns of 
vapor ; 3^et, when the latter are slightly mingled with ashes, they 
are rarel}- stormy. 

ACTUAL FIRES SEEN. 

Although the evolution of electricity in the columns of vapor 
and ashes vomited out by volcanoes has never been called in 
question, the appearance of actual flames at the time of volcanic 
eruptions was for a long time disputed. IM. Sartorius von Wal- 
tershauseu, the patient observer of Etna, has maintained that 
neither this mountain, nor Stromboli, nor au}^ other volcano, has 
ever presented among its phenomena any fire properl}^ so called, 
and that the supposed flames were nothing more than the reflec- 
tion of the red or white lava that was boiling in the crater. 

On the other hand, Elie de Beaumont, Abich and Pilla posi- 
tively assert that they have seen light flames on the summit of 
Vesu\'ius and Etna. It would, however, be ver}' natural to believe 
that inflammable gases might be liberated and take fire at the 
outlet of those immense shafts which place the great subterra- 
nean laboratory of lava in communication with the outer air. 



VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 37;| 

This question was, however, resolved in the affirmative at 
the time of the eruption of Santorin, and popular opinion was 
right in opposition to most men of science. All those who were 
able to witness, at its commencement, the upheaval of the lava at 
Cape Georges and Aphroessa, have certified to the appearance of 
burning gas dancing above the lava, and even on the surface of 
the sea. All round the upheaved hillocks, bubbles of gas, break- 
ing forth from the waves, became kindled as they came in contact 
with the burning mass, and were diffused over the water in long 
trains of white, red or greenish flames, which the breeze alter- 
nately raised or beat down ; sometimes a smart puff of wind put 
out the fire, but it soon recommenced to run over the breakers ; 
by approaching it carefully, fragments of paper might be burnt 
in it, which lighted as they dropped. On the slopes of the volcano 
of Aphroessa fire, rendered of a yellowish hue by salts of soda, 
sprung out from all the fissures, and rose to a height of several 
yards. On the rather older lava of Cape Georges the trains of 
flame were less numerous ; there, however, bluish glimmers 
might be seen flitting about in some spots over the black ridges 

of lava. 

GROWING MOUNTAINS. 

Added to this, are not the flames at Bakou, on the coast of 
the Caspian Sea, produced by the volcanic action of the ground ? 
The "growing mountains" in the neighborhood are mud-vol- 
canoes, and we must doubtless attribute to the same subterranean 
activity the production of the hydrogen gas which burns in an 
"eternal flame " in the temple of the Parsi. During some of the 
evenings in autumn, when the weather is fine and the sun has 
heated the surface of the ground, the flames occasionally make 
their appearance on the hills, and for several hours may be seen 
the marvelous spectacle of a train of fire stretching along the 
country without burning the ground, and even without scorching 
a blade of grass. 

Next to lava and ashes, streams of water and mud are the 
most considerable products of volcanic activity, and the catas- 
trophes which they have caused are perhaps among the most terri- 



372 VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 

ble whicli history has to relate. B}^ means of these sudden deluges, 
towns have been swept away or swallowed up, whole districts dotted 
over with habitations have been flooded with mud or converted 
into marshes, and the entire face of nature has been changed in 
the space of a few hours. 

The liquid masses which descend rapidly from the mountain 
height do not always proceed from the volcano itself Thus the 
local deluge may be caused by a rapid condensation of large quan- 
tities of steam which escape from the crater and fall in torrents on 
the slopes. A phenomenon of this kind must evidently take 
place in a great many cases, and it was doubtless by a cataclysm 
of this kind that the town of Herculaueum, at the foot of 
Vesuvius, was buried. 

MELTED SNOW AND ICE. 

As regards the lofty snow-clad volcanoes of tb^ tropical and 
temperate zones, and also those of the frozen regions, the torrents 
of water and debris — the "water-lava," as the Sicilians call them 
— may be explained by the rapid melting of immense masses of 
snow and ice, with which the burning lava, the hot ashes, or the 
gaseous emanations of the volcanic furnace have come in contact. 
Thus, in Iceland, after each eruption, formidable deluges, carry- 
ing with them ice, scoria, and rocks, suddenly rush down into the 
valleys, sweeping away everything in their course. 

These liquid avalanches are the most terrible phenomena 
which the inhabitants of the island have to dread. They show 
three headlands formed of debris, which the body of water descend- 
ing from the sides of Kutlugaya in 1766 threw out far iuto the sea, 
in a depth of 246 feet of water. 

Other deluges no less formidable are caused by the rupture 
of the walls which pen back a lake in the cavity of a former cra- 
ter, or by the formation of a fissure which affords an outlet to 
liquid masses contained in subterranean reservoirs. It would be 
too difficult to explain otherwise the mud-eruptions of several 
trachytic volcanoes of the Andes — Imbambaru, Cotopaxi, and 
Carahuarizo. In fact, the mud which comes down from these 



VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 373 

mountains often contains a large quantity of organized beings, 
aquatic plants, infusoria, and even fish, which could only have 
lived in the calm waters of a lake. 

Of this kind is the Pimelodes cyclopum, a little fish of the 
tribe of the Silurida, which according to Humboldt, has hitherto 
been found nowhere except in the Andini caverns and in the rivu- 
lets of the plateau of Quito. In 169 1 the volcano of Imbambaru 
vomited out, in combination with mud and snow, so large a quan- 
tity of these remains of organisms that the air was contaminated 
by them, and miasmatic fevers prevailed in all the country round. 
The masses of water which thus rush down suddenly into the 
plains amount sometimes to millions, or even thousands of 
millions of cubic yards. 

UNDERGROUND LAKES. 

Although, in some cases, these eruptions of mud and water 
may be looked upon as accidental phenomena, they must, on the 
contrary, as regards many volcanoes, be considered as the result 
of the normal action of the subterranean forces. They are, then, 
the waters of the sea or of lakes which, having been buried in the 
earth, again make their appearance on the surface, mingled with 
rocks which they have dissolved or reduced to a pasty state. 

A remarkable instance of these liquid eruptions is that pre- 
sented by Papandayang, one of the most active volcanoes in Java. 
In 1792 this mountain burst, the summit was converted into dust 
and disappeared, and the debris, spreading far and wide, buried 
forty villages. Since this epoch a copious rivulet gushes out in the 
very mouth of the crater, at a height of 7710 feet, and runs down 
into the plain, leaping over the blocks of trachyte. Round the spring 
pools of water fill all the clefts in the rocks, and boil up inces- 
santly under the action of the hot vapors which rise in bubbles ; 
here and there are funnel-shaped cavities, in which black and 
miiddy water constantly ascends and sinks with the same regu- 
larity as the waves of the sea ; elsewhere, muddy masses slowly 
issuing from small craters flow in circular slopes over mounds of 
a few inches or a yard in height ; lastly, jets of steam dart out of 



374 VOLCANIC TROJECTILES. 

all the fissures witli a shrill noise, making the ground tremble 
with the shock. 

All these various noises, the roaring of the cascades, the ex- 
plosion of the gaseous springs, the hoarse murmur of the mud- 
volcanoes, the shrill hissing of the fumaroles, produce an inde- 
ccribable uproar, which is audible far awa}^ in the plains, which, 
too, has given to the volcano its name of Papanda3^ang, or 
"Forge," as if one could incessantly hear the mighty blast of the 
flames and the ever-recurring beating of the anvils. 

In volcanoes of a great height it is rarely found that erup- 
tions of water and mud are constant, as in the Papandayang ; 
but temporary ejections of liquid masses are frequent, and there 
are, indeed, some volcanoes which vomit out nothing but muddy 
matter. The volcano of Aqua (or water), the cone of which is 
gently inclined like that of Etna, and rises to about 13,000 feet in 
height, into the regions of snow, has never vomited anything but 
water ; and it is, indeed, stated that lava and other volcanic 
products are entirely wanting on its slopes. 

INHABITANTS DRIVEN OUT. 

Yet in 1541, this prodigious intermittent spring hurled into 
the air its terminal point and poured over the plains at its base, 
and over the town of Guatemala, so large a quantity of water, 
mingled with stones and debris, that the inhabitants were com- 
pelled to fly with the greatest haste, and to reconstruct their 
capital at the foot of the volcano of Fuego. This new neighbor, 
however, showed that he was as much or more to be dreaded than 
their former one, for the violent eruptions from the mountain 
compelled the inhabitants of the second town to again migrate 
and to rebuild their capital at a point twenty miles to the north- 
west. 

Several volcanoes in Java and the Philippines also give vent, 
during their eruptions, to large quantities of mud, sometimes' 
mingled with organic matter in such considerable proportions that 
they have been utilized as fuel. In 1793, a few months after the 
terrible eruption gf Uusen, in the island of Kiousiou, an adjacent 



VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 375 

volcano, the Miyi-Yama, vomited, according to Kampfer, so pro- 
digious a quantity of water and mud that all the neighboring 
plains were inundated, and 53,000 people were drowned in the 
deluge ; unfortunately, we have no historical details of this catas- 
trophe. Of all the eruptions of mud, the best known is that of 
Tunguragua, a volcano in Ecuador, which rises to the south of 
Quito to 16,400 feet in height. 

In 1797, at the time of the earthquake of Riobamba, a whole 
side of the mountain sank in the downfall, with the forests which 
grew on it ; at the same time, a flow of viscous mud issued from the 
fissures at its base, and rushed down into the valleys. One of 
these currents of mud filled up a winding defile, which separated 
two mountains, to a depth of 650 feet, over a width of more than 
1000 feet, and damming up the rivulets at their outlet from the 
side valleys, kept back the water in temporary lakes ; one of these 
sheets of water remained for eighty-seven days. 

A CURIOUS TRANSITION. 

The volcanic mud, therefore, has this point of resemblance 
with the lava — that it sometimes flows out through the crater, as 
on Papandayang ; sometimes through side craters, as on Tungu- 
ragua. Doubtless, when the volcanic muds have been better 
studied, we shall be enabled to trace the transition which takes 
place by almost imperceptible degrees between the more or less 
impure water escaping from volcanoes, and the burning lava more 
or less charged with steam. This transition is, however, already 
noticed in the ancient matter which the water has carried down 
and deposited in the strata at the foot of volcanic mountains. 
These rocks, known under the name of tufa, trass, or perperino, 
are nothing but heaps of pumice, scoria, ashes, and mud, 
cemented together by the water into a species of mortar or con- 
glomerate, and gradually solidified by the evaporation of the 
humidity which they contained. 

Of this kind, for instance, is the hardened stone which, for 
eighteen centuries, has covered the city of Herculaneum with a 
a layer of 50 to 150 feet in thickness. Among rocks of various 



376 VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 

formations, there are but few whicli exhibit a more astonishing 
diversity than the tufas. They differ entirely in appearance and 
physical qualities, according to the nature of the materials which 
have formed them, the quantity of water which has cemented 
them, the greater or less rapidity with v/hich their fall and desi- 
cation take place ; lastly, the number and distribution of the 
chinks which are produced across the dried mass, and have been 
filled up with the most different substances. Many kinds of tufa 
resemble the most beautiful marble. 

LITTLE CONES. 

The small hillocks, which are specially called mud-volcanoes, 
or salses, on account of the salts which are frequently deposited 
by their waters, are cones which differ only in their dimensions 
from the mighty volcanoes of Java or the Andes. Like these 
great mountains, they shake the ground, and rend it, in order to 
discharge their pent-up matter ; they emit gas and steam in 
abundance, add to their slopes by their own debris, shift their 
places, change their craters, throw off their summits in their 
explosions ; lastly, some of these salses are incessantly at work, 
while others have periods of repose and activity. In nature, 
transitions merge into one another so perfectly, that it is difficult to 
discover any essential difference between a volcano and a salse, 
and between the latter and a thermal spring. 

Mud-volcanoes exist in considerable numbers on the surface 
of the earth, and, like the volcanoes of lava, the neighborhood of 
the sea-coast is the principal locality where we find their little 
cones. In Europe, the most remarkable are those which are situ- 
ated at the two extremities of the Caucasus, on the coasts of the 
Caspian Sea, and on both sides of the Straits of Yenikale, which 
connect the Sea of Azof with the Black Sea. On the east, the 
mud-springs of Bakou are especially distinguished by their com- 
bination with inflammable gases ; on the west, those of Taman 
and Kertch flow all the year round, but especially during times 
of drought, pouring out large quantities of blackish mud. One 
of these mud-volcanoes, the Gorela, or Kuku-Oba, which, in the 



VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 377 

time of Pallas, was called tlie "Hell," or Prekla, on account of its 
frequent eruptions, is no less than 246 feet in height, and from 
this crater, which is perfectly distinct, muddy streams have flowed 
one of wnich was 2624 feet long, and contained about 850,000 
cubic yards. 

The volcanitos of Turbaco, described by Humboldt, and the 
maccalube of Girgenti, which have been explored, since Dolomieu, 
by most European savants who have devoted themselves to the 
study of subterranean forces, are also well-known examples oJ 
mud-springs, and may serve as a type to all the hillocks of the 
same character. In winter, after a long course of rains, the plain 
is a surface of mud and water forming a kind of boiling paste, 
from which steam makes its escape with a whistling noise ; but 
the warmth of spring and summer hardens this clay into a thick 
crust, which the steam breaks through at various points and 
covers with increasing hillocks. At the apex of these cones a 
bubble of gas swells up the mud like a blister, and then bursts it, 
the semi-liquid flowing in a thin coat over the mound ; then a fresh 
bubble ejects more mud, which spreads over the first layer already 
become hard, and this action continues incessantly until the rains 
of winter again wash away all the cones. 

DEPENDENT ON THE TIDES. 

This is the ordinary course of action of the salse, sometimes 
interrupted by violent eruptions. On the coast of Mekran the 
mud-volcanoes are not only subject to the action of the seasons, 
but also depend on the action of the tides, although many of them 
are from 9 to 12 miles from the Indian Ocean. At the time of the 
flow the mud rises in great bubbles, accompanied by a hoarse mur- 
mur, like the distant roar of thunder. The highest cone is not 
more than 246 feet high, and stands seven miles from the shore. 

In a general way, the expulsion of mud and gas is accom- 
panied by a discharge of heat, but in some salses, like those of 
Mekran, the matter ejected is not higher in temperature than the 
surrounding air, as if the expulsion of the mud from the ground 
was an entirely superficial phenomenon. Occasionally, in peat 



f 8 VOLCANIC PROJECTILES. 

bogs, the ground cracks and cold mud is ejected from tlie fissure ; 
and then, after this kind of eruption, the spongy soil sinks and 
again levels down. Is this eruptive phenomenon similar to that 
presented by the mud volcanoes, and caused by the fermentation 
of gases in the midst of substances in a state of putrefaction ? 
This is M. Otto Volger's idea ; and it would be difficult to give 
any other explanation of the phenomenon. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Volcanic Thermal Springs. — Geysers. — Springs in New 
Zealand. — Craters of Carbonic Acid. 

\ /OIvCANOBS, both of lava and mud, all have, either on their 
^ sides or in the vicinity of their base, thermal springs, which 
afford an outlet to their surplus water, gas, and vapor. Most even 
of those mountains which are at present tranquil, but which were 
once centres of eruption, continue to manifest their activity by 
vapors and gas, like furnaces in which the flames are extinct, but 
the smoke is still rising. Although lava and ashes no longer 
make their escape from the crater of lateral fissures, yet numer- 
ous hot springs, formed by the condensation of the steam, gen- 
erally serve as a vehicle for the gas pent up in the depths of the 
mountain. 

We may reckon by hundreds and thousands the "geysers," 
the "vinegar springs," and other thermal springs in countries 
once burning with volcanoes, the fires of which are extinct, or at 
least quieted down for a period more or less protracted. Thus the 
former volcanoes of Auvergne ; the mountains of the Eifel, on the 
Rhine, the craters of which contain nothing but lakes or pools ; 
the Demavend, with its mouth filled up with snow — all still exhale 
here and there, through springs, as it were, a feeble breath of their 
once mighty vitality. 

The volcanic regions of the earth where thermal springs gush 
out, are very numerous. In Europe we have Sicily, Iceland, Tus- 
cany, and the peninsula of Kertch, and Yellowstone Park, in 
America — land so rich in volcanoes — the springs warmed by sub- 
terranean vapor are still more numerous, and there are some 
on the sides of the volcano Nuevo del Chilian which gush out 
through a thick bed of perpetual snow. 

A lateral gorge of the valley of Napa, in California, called the 
" Devil's Canyon," may be quoted as one of the most striking exam- 
ples of the active production of thermal waters. The narrow 



880 VOLCANIC THERMAL SPRINGS. 

ravine, filled witli vapor rising in eddies, opens on the side of a 
red and bare mountain, that one might fancy was scorched by fire. 
The entry to the ravine follows the course of a rivulet, the boiling 
waters of which are mingled with chemical substances horrible to 
the taste. Innumerable springs — some sulphurous, others charged 
with alum or salt — gush out at the base of the rocks. There are 
both warm and cold springs, and hot and boiling ; some are blue 
and transparent, others white, yellow or red with ochre. In a 
cavity which is called the "Sorcerers' Caldron" a mass of black 
and fetid mud boils up in great bubbles. 

Higher up, the "Devil's Steam-boat" darts out jets of gas- 
eous matter, which issue pufiing from a wall of rock : fumerolles 
may be seen by hundreds on the sides of the mountain. All these 
various agents either murmur, whistle, rumble or roar, and thus 
a tempest of deafening sounds incessantly fills the gorge. The 
burning ground, composed of a clayey mud — in one spot yellow 
with sulphur, and in another white with chalk — gives way under 
the feet of the traveler who ventures on it, and gives vent to puffs 
of vapor through its numberless cracks. The whole gorge appears 
to be the common outlet of numerous reservoirs of various mineral 
waters, all heated by some great volcanic furnace. 

THE DEVIL'S CANYON. 

The ravine of Infernillo (Little Hell), which is situated at 
the base of the volcano of San Vincente, in the centre of the 
Republic of San Salvador, presents phenomena similar to those 
of the "Devil's Canyon." There, too, a multitude of streams of 
boiling water gush from the soil, which is calcined like a brick, 
and eddies of vapor spring from the fissures of the rock wi-th a 
noise like the shrill whistle of a locomotive. The most consider- 
able body of water issues from a fissure 32 feet in width which 
opens under a bed of volcanic rocks at a slight elevation above 
the bottom of the valley. 

The liquid stream, partially hidden by the clouds of vapor 
which rise from it, is shut out to a distance of 130 feet as if by a 
force-pump, and the whistling of the water pent up between the 



VOLCANIC THERMAL SPRINGS. 381 

rocks reminds one of the furnace of a manufactory at full work. 
One might fancy that it was the respiration of some prodigious 
being hidden under the mountain. 

The hottest springs v/hich gush out on the surface of the 
ground, such as those of Las Trincheras and Comangillas, do not 
reach the temperature of 212° (Fahr.); but we have no right to 
conclude from this that the water in the interior of the earth does 
not rise to a much more considerable heat. It is, on the contrary, 
certain that water descending into the deepest fissures of the 
earth although still maintaining a liquid state, may reach, inde- 
pendently of any volcanic action, a temperature of several 
hundred degrees ; being compressed by the liquid masses above 
it, it is not converted into steam. At a depth which is not cer- 
tainly known, but which various savants have approximately 
fixed at 49,000 feet, water of a temperature exceeding 750° (Fahr.) 
ultimately attains elasticity sufficient to overcome the formidable 
weight of 1500 atmospheres which presses on it ; it changes into 
steam, and in this new form mounts to the surface of the earth 
through the fissures of the rocks. 

FRESH JETS OF STEAM. 

Even if this steam, passing through beds of a gradually 
decreasing temperature, is again condensed and runs back again 
in the form of water, still it heats the liquid which surrounds it, 
and increases its elasticity ; it consequently assists the genera- 
tion of fresh jets of steam, which likewise rise toward the uppei 
regions. Thus, step by step, water is converted into steam up to 
the very surface of the earth, and springs out from fissures. 

In Iceland, California, New Zealand and several other vol- 
canic regions of the world, jets of steam mingled with boiling water 
are so considerable as to rank among the most astonishing phe- 
nomena of the planet. The most celebrated, and certainly the 
most beautiful, of all these springs is the Great Geyser of Iceland. 
Seen from afar, light vapors, creeping over the low plain at the 
foot of the mountain of Blafell, point out the situation of the jet of 
water and of the neighboring springs. The basin of siliceous stone 



382 VOLCANIC THERMAL SPRINGS. 

wliicli the Geyser itself lias formed during tlie lapse of centuries 
is no less tlian fifty-two feet in widtli, and serves as tlie outet 
inclosure of a funnel-sliaped cavity, seventy-five feet deep, from 
tlie bottom of wliicli rise the water and steam. A tliin liquid sheet 
flows over the edges of the basin, and descends in little cascades 
over the outer slope. 

The cold air lowers the temperature of the water on the sur- 
face, but the heat increases more and more in all the layers 
"ieneath ; everj^ here and there bubbles are formed at the bottom 
of the water, and burst when they emerge into the air. Soon 
bodies of steam rise in clouds in the green and transparent water, 
but, meeting the colder masses on the surface, they again con- 
dense. Ultimatel}^ they make their wa}'- into the basin, and 
cause the water to bubble up ; steam rises in dififerent places from 
the liquid sheet, and the temperature of the whole basin reaches 
the boiling-point ; the surface swells up in foamy heaps, and 
the ground trembles and roars mth a stifled sound. The cauldron 
constantl}' gives vent to clouds of vapor, which sometimes gather 
round the basin, and sometimes are cleared away by the wind. 

LEAP OUT WITH A CRASH. 

At intervals, a few moments of silence succeed to the 
noise of the steam. Sudden!}^ the resistance is overcome, the 
enormous jet leaps out with a crash, and, like a pillar of glitter- 
ing marble, shoots up more than loo feet in the air. A second 
and then a third jet rapidl}^ follow; but the magnificent spectacle 
lasts but for a few minutes. The steam blows awaj-; the water, now 
cooled, falls in and round the basin ; and for hours, or even 
daj's, a fresh eruption maj- be waited for in vain. Leaning over 
the edge of the hole whence such a storm of foam and water has 
just issued, and looking at the blue, transparent, and scarcely- 
rippled surface, one can hardly believe, sa3's Bunsen, in the sud- 
den change which has taken place. 

The slight deposits of siliceous matter which are left by the 
evaporation of the boiling ^vater have alread}^ formed a conical 
hillock round the spring, and, sooner or later, the increasing curb 



VOLCANIC THERMAL SPRINGS. 383 

of Stone will have so considerably augmented the pressure of the 
liquid mass in the spring that the waters must ultimately open a 
fresh outlet beyond the present cone. From the experiments and 
observations made by Forbes as to the formation of the layer of 
incrustations round the jet, this spring must have commencd its 
eruptions ten centuries and a half ago, and they will probably 
cease in a much shorter space of time. 

Not far from the Geyser, the mound of deposits from which 
is not less than 39 feet in height, there are a number of pools 
which once acted as basins for springs which gushed up through 
them, but are now nothing but cisterns filled with blue and limpid 
water, at the bottom of which may be seen the mouth of a former 
channel of eruption. A shifting in the position of the centre of 
activity takes place in the Geyser, just as in mud volcanoes and 
incrusting springs. Several springs lying on the same terrestrial 
fissure as the great jet d'eau, the Strokkr, the Small Geyser, and 
some others, present phenomena which are nearly similar, and are 
evidently subject to the action of the same forces. 

IN CONTACT WITH HOT LAVA. 

The vicinity of the active volcanoes of Iceland warrants us, 
however, in supposing that the water produced by the melting of 
the snow on Blafell does not require to descend many thousands of 
yards into the earth in order to be converted into steam. There 
is no doubt that, at no very great depth below the surface, they 
come in contact with burning lava, which gives them their high 
temperature. By reproducing in miniature all the conditions 
which are thought to apply to the Icelandic springs — that is, by 
heating the bases of tubes of iron filled with water and sur- 
mounted by a basin — Tyndall succeeded in producing in his labora- 
tory charming little geysers, which jetted out every five minutes. 

About the centre of the northern Island of New Zealand the 
activity of the volcanic springs is manifested still more remark- 
ably even than in Iceland. On the slightly winding line of fissure 
which extends from the southwest to the northeast, between the 
ever active volcano of Tongariro and the smoking island of 



384 VOLCANIC THERMAL SPRINGS. 

Whakari, in Plenty Bay, thermal springs, mud fountains, and 
geysers rise in more tlian a thousand places, and in some spots 
combine to form considerable lakes. 

In some localities the hot vapors make their escape from the 
sides of the mountains in such abundance that the soil is reduced 
to a soft state over vast surfaces, and flows down slowly to the 
plains in long beds of mud. For a distance of more than a mile 
a portion of the Lake of Taupo boils and smokes as if it was 
heated by a subterreanean fire, and the temperature of its water 
reaches, on the average to ioo° (Fahr.). Farther to the north, the 
two sides of the valley, through which flows the impetuous rivei 
of Waikato after its issue from Lake Taupo, present, for more 
than a mile, so large a number of water jets, that in one spot as 
many as seventy-six are counted. These geysers, which rise to 
various heights, play alternately, as if obeying a kind of rhythm 
in their successive appearances and disappearances. 

While one springs out of the ground, falling back into its 
basin in a graceful curve bent by the wind, another ceases to 
jet out. In one spot a whole series of jets suddenly become 
quiet, and the basins of still water emit nothing but a thin mist 
of vapor. Farther on, however, the mountain is all activity ; 
liquid columns all at once shine in the sun, and white cascades 
fall from terrace to terrace toward the river. Every moment the 
features of the landscape are being modified, and fresh voices 
take a part in the marvelous concert of the gushing springs. 

About the middle of the interval which separates the Lake 
of Taupo from the coast of Plenty Bay, several other volcanic 
pools are dotted about, all most remarkable for their thermal and 
jetting springs. One of them, however, is among the great 
wonders of the world. This is the Lake of Rotomahanna, a small 
basin of about 120 acres, the temperature of which, being raised 
by all the hot springs which feed it, is about 78° (Fahr.). Dr. 
von Hochstetter has not even attempted to count the basins, the 
funnels, and the fissures from which the water, steam-mud, and 
sulphurous gases make their escape. 



APPENDIX. 

'yHE later scenes of devastation and horror in the earthquake-convulsed 
A city of San Francisco were such as might have been expected from 
the destruction and terror that had gone before. And what went before 
was graphically described by a railway clerk. 

Caught by the first av/ful shock of the earthquake in a street car at 
Sixteenth and Mission Streets, while on his way to report "out" at the 
general postoffice, and forced to grope his way through the debris-strewn 
streets from there to the ferry house, C. E. Presson, railway mail clerk. 
Told a most graphic story. 

"I was at Sixteenth and Mission Streets on a street car when the 
shock came. It was at 5.15 o'clock, as nearly as I can tell. I was headed 
for the postoffice, as I was due to go out on my run on No. 8 on the 
Southern Pacific. There was one great detonating roar, a succession of 
friglitful crashes, and then came the flames, breaking out everywhere. 

"The shock set all of the passengers in a panic, myself among the 
rest. The cars were stopped at once. We all got off and tried to walk, 
but couldn't make any headway while the shock lasted. It seemed to come 
from east to west, and then from north to south, and there was also a 
vertical motion. It c*ne as a thunderbolt to me. There was no oppres- 
sion in the atmosphere and there was absolutely no warning. The first 
shock, I should say, lasted about two minutes. When the shock came 
there was a noise as though a cannon had exploded. This was made by 
falling walls and houses. We also heard the crashing of glass as it was 
hurled from the windows to the pavement. 

"We started to walk down Mission Street. I went as far as the post- 
office, at Seventh and Mission Streets. As I walked on women were in 
the street clad only in their nightclothes and calling for their little ones 
amidst their tears. Men were rushing through half-fallen buildings and 
throwing clothing to the women in the streets from the upper windo\vs. 
It was a terrible sight. When I got to the postoffice I entered the mailing 

department to go to my office and register 'out' on train 8. 

25— S.F. 885 



386 APPENDIX 

"In going through the building I saw that all of the beautiful marble 
work on the staircase had been broken into a thousand pieces. The 
bu-ilding had sunk so that I could not get through the doors in the interior. 
The plastering was all down in the mailing room and the custodian of 
the building had been injured about the head by falling debris. The office 
was abandoned at 6 A. M. I went from the postofhce down Mission 
Street to Sixth. At Sixth and Howard Streets a big rooming house had 
collapsed and was a mass of flames. The bystanders told me that there 
were 250 people in the ruins. There was no chance to aid them. 

"I turned there and went to Market Street. Going down that street 
I saw that every conveyance on the street was loaded with the dead and 
injured, taking them to the emergency morgue and hospital. By this 
time it was nearly 6 o'clock. Market Street, as I looked toward the ferry, 
was a mass of brick and stone debris from fallen walls. The street itself 
was sunken in some places and raised in others, so that it looked like the 
waves of the ocean. The depressions were at right angles to the street. 

MARKET STREET A MASS OF DEBRIS. 

"The Call building was twisted slightly. The rear end of the Ex- 
aminer building, toward the Palace Hotel, had partially fallen in. The 
new Monadnock building, not yet finished, that is between the Examiner 
and the Palace Hotel, seemed to have been cut in two. That portion 
toward the Examiner had collapsed and was in ruins. The Palace Hotel, 
as I saw it, was leaning about thirty degrees toward Montgomery Street. 
All of the guests were crowded in the street, but all seemed to have had 
rime to dress. The new portion of the Chronicle building had fallen in, 
as far as I could see, but the old ]>ortion was still standing. 

"The building at Montgomery and Market Streets, occupied as South- 
ern Pacific headquarters, and the Hobart Building had lost their upper 
stories. The fall of the demolished portion was toward Market Street. 
-An hour had elapsed since the first shock. Farther down Market Street 
I saw that the building occupied by Holbrook, Merrill & Stetson, wholesaH 
hardware dealers, was in flames. The fire department was pumping wat?" 
from the sewer, but could make no headway. To the left of this buildi'T^. 
on Front Street, two other fires had started. I went on down Market 



APPENDIX 587 

Street about a block and a half, when I heard an explosion. I looked back 
and saw that the big hardware building had been blown up. That waS at 
6. 20. 

"When I got to the ferry building I saw that the front of the tower 
as far as the clock had fallen in. The clock stopped at 5.15. The wall of 
the south end of the ferry, occupied by the Southern Pacific as a baggage 
room, had fallen into the bay. I went back on East Street, and as I stood 
looking over the ruins I counted seventy-two different fires in the city 
That was before they had a chance to get together." 

WOMEN IN MEN'S GARB. 

In some of the provisional camps established for refugees near the 
foot of Van Ness Avenue and near Fort Mason it was difficult to distin- 
guish men from women. Evidently the supply of women's clothing had 
been exhausted, for many women could be seen dressed in ordinary soft 
shirts and overalls. In this garb they were walking about their tents un- 
concernedly, preparing breakfast. It was no time for false modesty, and 
those who were able to make themselves comfortable in any sort of cloth- 
ing were indeed fortunate. It was suggested to the Relief Committee, and 
especially to the members of the Finance Committee, that stores of khaki 
bloomeis and blouses be purchased for the women. 

Congressman Kahn arrived, having left Washington Thursday after- 
noon. "Never in my life have I seen such a spontaneous response to the 
needs of a distressed country. From every hand I was promised assistance 
to repair the damage that had been done to the western metropolis. Money 
was offered in any amount we might need, and promises were made that all 
the Federal buildings that had been destroyed would be rebuilt. Congress- 
man Overstreet, of the Committee on Post-offices, asked me to telegraph 
him the extent of the damage to the local post-office, and said that he would 
incorporate in the appropriation bill now pending a sufficient sum to put it 
in repair. The same action will be taken in regard to the other government 
buildings. 

"As soon as I find my family I will do what I can to aid the stricken 
city, because I believe that the disaster will not destroy, but only retard 
its progress. We should all put our shoulders to the wheel to help bring 



i6$ APPENDIX 

from the ruins a city more beautiful and kiore prosperous than San Fran- 
cisco has been in the past." 

Chief of Police Dinan talked of reported clashes between police and 
national guardsmen, saying they had been exaggerated. *"As tar as the 
police department is concerned." said Chief Dinan, '*\ve have endeavored 
to co-operate with the regulars in patroling the streets and preserving 
order. We have had no clash with militiamen or the citizens' patrol, but 
there have been nimierous complaints of the overzealousness oi the gxiards- 
men by citizens, and for that reason we have deemed it advisable to 
request the withdrawal of all bodies of troops not acting under the direct 
command of General Funston. 

"Policeman Alpers. detailed on duty in an automobile, was fired upon 
by militiamen at Hayes Street and Van Xess Avenue. He was speeding 
to headquarters, and was challenged by regulars several times, but no 
effort was made to stop him until he came up against the militia patrol at 
Hayes and \'an Xess. They commenced to shoot before challenging the 
automobile party, and as the officer dashed by four shots were fired by the 
guardsmen. 

"Captain of Police Martin was informed by militiamen in his section 
that there must be no lights. He told the guards that the orders were 
that the lights should be permitted until lo o'clock P. M.. but the guards 
were obdurate, and the captain put in tfte evening without lights. It was 
such little incidents as these that made the militiamen undesirable for 
patrol duty, and called forth a vigorous protest from the citizens. * 

OFFICER DEMANDED HIS CARD. 

Captain Rettenhaus, of the Marine Corps, notified Chief Dinan that 
liquor was being sold in a saloon at Fillmore and Fuller Streets. Police 
Captain Duke, with a platoon of police, accompanied Captain Rettenhaus 
to the saloon and found the place closed. Captain Rettenhaus insisted 
that the stock be destroyed, and when Captain Duke explained that he had 
no authority to take such action Captain Rettenhaus became indignant, 
demanded his card and declared that General Funston would be informed 
that a call had been made upon the police for aid and that it had been 
refused. 



APPENDIX 889 

Commanding a company of ten detective sergeants identified with the 
Chicago police, Lieutenant Hereford arrived on Tuesday and reported for 
duty to Chief of Police Dinan. They worked with the local detective ser- 
geants and kept a special watch on Eastern thieves who were coming this 
way with an eye to wholesale looting. 

The story had hardly spread of the killing of H. C. Tilden, a promi- 
nent relief worker, who was shot while doing missionary service in his 
auto, than there came the news of the slaying of Superintendent Joseph 
Myers, of the Children's Playgrounds. Acting under orders from the 
Committee of Safety. Superintendent Myers had refused to allow some 
armed guards to build fires on the grounds. His refusal was met with a 
bullet, and he died almost instantly. Superintendent Myers was a leader 
in charitable works. 

Dr. K. A. T. MacKenzie, of Portland, Ore., second vice-president of 
the American Medical Association, who w'as in charge of the contagious 
diseases hospital, reported to the surgeon general of the army that 500 
San Francisco physicians were destitute, their diplomas destroyed: that 
they were working bravely and resolutely for their fellow-men. An 
appeal was made to physicians to assist them. 

DYNAMITE SQUAD'S WORK. 

Three heroes saved what is left of San Francisco. They were the 
dynamite squad, who turned back the fire at Van Ness Avenue. When 
the burning city seemed doomed and the flames lit the sky farther and 
farther to the west Admiral McCalla sent a trio of his most trusted men 
from Mare Island with orders to check the conflagration at any cost. With 
them they brought a ton and a half of guncotton. Captain McBride was 
in charge of the squad. Chief Gunner Adamson placed the charges and 
the third gunner set them off. 

The thunderous detonations to which the terrified city listened all that 
dreadful Friday night meant the salvation of many lives. A million dol- 
lars' worth of property, noble residences and worthless shacks alike, were 
blown to drifting dust, but that destruction broke the fire and sent the 
raging flames over their own charred path. The whole east side of Van 
Ness Avenue, from Golden Gate to Greenwich, was dynamited a block 



390 APPENDIX 

deep, though most of the structures stood untouched by spark or cinder. 
Unless some second malicious miracle of nature reversed the direction of 
the west wind the whole populous district to the west, blocked with fleeing 
refugees and unilluminated except by the disastrous glare on the water 
front, seemed safe by 9 o'clock. 

\'an Xess Avenue is tlat as the earth on the east side. Every pound 
of gTjncotton did its work, and though the ruins burned it was but feebly. 
From Golden Gate Avenue north the fire crossed the wide street in but one 
place. That was the Glaus Spreckels house, at California Street. There 
the flames were writhing up the walls before the d}iiamiters could reach 
it. Yet they made their way to the foundations, carrying their explosives 
despite the furnace-like heat. The charge had to be placed so swiftly and 
the fuse lighted in such a hurry that the explosion was not quite successful 
from the trained viewpoint of the gunners. But though the walls still 
stood it was only an empty victory for the Are, as bare brick and smoking 
ruins were poor food for the flames. 

Engines pimiping brine through Fort Madison from the bay com- 
pleted the little work that the guncotton had left. [Mayor Mott, of Oak- 
land, was notified that several cities of the State had been placarded with 
statements to the effect that skilled labor was eagerly sought in San 
Francisco. He said that such notices were erroneous, as there was no 
material in San Francisco for mechanics to work with. 

TO CONTINUE LEGAL HOLIDAYS. 

Governor Pardee announced that he would continue to proclaim legal 
holidays from day to day as long as the financial condition of the State 
w^as unsettled. The United Railroads declared that lines were safe for 
operations. The lights would be turned on as soon as the wires leading 
into houses which might prove a source of danger were cut. This work 
was progressing rapidly. The United Railroads tendered the use of its 
entire system to Mayor Schmitz for the benefit of the people during the 
present crisis. Free transportation was furnished the people over the 
lines of the company for themselves and their baggage. 

There is one place within pistol shot of the city that the earthquake 
did not touch, that did not lose a chimney or feel a tremor — Alcatraz 



APPENDIX 391 

Island. Despite the tact that tlie island is covered with brick buildings, 
brick forts and brick chimneys, not a brick was loosened nor a crack made. 
When the scientists come to write of the disturbance they will have their 
hands full explaining why Alcatraz did not have any physical knowledge 
of the event. The scene from the island was awe-inspiring. The crash 
of a falling city filled the ears of the aroused island, but no one under- 
stood what it was all about until a boat from Alcatraz landed at the * 
shattered wharves in San Francisco. 

CHINATOWN OBLITERATED. 

The big fire obliterated Chinatown from San Francisco. Mayor 
Schmitz informed Chief of Police Dinan that all of th«: Chinese in the 
city would be collected and placed in and near Fontanas warehouses near 
Fort Mason, and that the new Chinatown would be located at Hunter's 
Point, on the southern extremity of the county on the bay shore. It is 
several miles distant from the old Chinatown. 

One of the gruesome scenes that followed the fire was that witnessed 
on Telegraph and Russian Hills and along the entire north beach front of 
the city, when scores of half-starved dogs were found eating human bodies. 
The animals were discovered gnawing and tearing at the corpses half- 
buried in the ruins. Men who had been sent into the nu'ns of homes to 
look for what little property might have escaped the flames came upon this 
sickening condition and immediately reported it to the naval officers in 
command of the water front military districts. In response to their 
appeal that something be done, bluejackets were detailed to cover the sec- 
tions designated and kill all dogs found in those vicinities. All morning 
rifle reports could be heard on the hillside and along the beach as the dogs 
were killed. 

It was a ragged, unkempt and hungry crowd of refugees which 
arrived at Omaha from San Francisco on the first of the fiee trains on the 
Union Pacific Railroad. Other such trains were following closely, .\mong 
the passengers in the entire trainload there prol*ibly was not $5. \\'eary 
and worn they had climbed aboard the train at Oakland in a condition 
bordering on collapse. Added to this was three days' travel in ordinary 
dav coache?. everv seat filled. 



892 APPENDIX 

Mrs. Wilson Evans, of Reading, Pa., said: "I am all that is left of 
a family of five. My husband and three children were killed, and their 
bodies buried. We were living in the city. I saved an old wrapper, noth- 
ing more. I only want to get away from that terrible place," 

Henry Howe, a seventy-year-old man from St. Paul, was in the 
Hotel Langdon. He said : "I woke when the ceiling fell on me and 
pinned me to the bed. After several hours I managed to get loose, 
wrapped a blanket around me and crawled away. Sometimes crawling, 
sometimes walking, I managed to reach a camp with nothing but my 
blanket. Somebody gave me the old clothes I am wearing." 

L. A. Dickerson, of Indianapolis, was in a hospital sick with ferver. 

"I was twenty-four hours making my way to the ferry because of my 
feeble condition," he said. "I had only a night shirt. The steward of the 
train lent me a pair of trousers and the porter gave me this coat. I have 
no hat and nothing else." 

'1[ was in the Golden West Hotel," said Willis Hammond, of Ander- 
son, Ind. "I managed to reach the street and was knocked senseless by 
something. When I recovered I was lying in Mechanics' Pavilion along 
with a long row of dead men. I had been hauled there in a wagonful of 
dead. When it was found that I was practically unhurt a pair of trousers 
taken from a dead man was given to me. It is all I have." 

MAN KILLED ON WEDDING TRIP. 

"My husband and I were at a rooming house south of Market Street." 
said Mrs. William Stone, of Emmettsburg, la. "The house collapsed. 
He was killed at my side. His body was taken away by the authorities. 
I don't know where. I secured an old dress skirt and at Ogden a woman 
took oflf her shoes and gave them to me. We were on our wedding trip." 

Mrs. James Taylor, an old woman, who had a bloody cloth bound 
about her head, said : "I am a widow and lived with my son and his family. 
The house fell. The relief workers pulled me out after several hours. 
They said the others were dead. I have friends in eastern Ohio and am 
going there." 

Similar stories were told by all. There was little excitement. Occa- 
sionally some woman broke out into hysterical weeping for a moment, but 



APPENDIX 898 

in the main all they seemed to want was to be let alone with their 
thoughts, and all wanted to get as far away from San Francisco as 
possible. 

At Omaha a large booth was erected in the street near the Union 
Depot and in this the refugees were being fed. The trains were expected to 
continue for two or three weeks at the rate of two or three a day. 

The first mails from San Francisco, after the catastrophe, arrived on 
Tuesday. Volumes of letters, unstamped and many of them without 
envelopes, were in the sacks. They had been sent by sufferers in San 
Francisco in the desperate chance that they would reach relatives and 
friends in other places. The Government was delivering all such matter 
received and was collecting no due stamps thereon. Some letters were 
written on cards, others on wrapping paper and even pieces of paper sacks 
were used. The general trend was, "We are alive, but have lost every- 
thing." 

GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF DISASTER. 

The following letter was from a prominent advertising agent of San 
Francisco. It was written hastily the day after the earthquake and fire, 
and is a graphic first-hand account of the disaster: 

"San Francisco is a heap of smouldering ruins. Since the first shock 
there have been several shocks, lighter, of course, yet each adding to the 
terror of the people. At 5.13 yesterday morning I was awakened by the 
rocking of the house. 

"I sat up in bed, saw the bureau dancing about the room, and said: 
This must be a real earthquake.' Then I looked for my glasses and 
found them safe on tlie floor, dressed and climbed over the bricks, for the 
chimney had fallen through the roof, striking about twenty inches from 
the head of the bed. Narrow squeak, that! 

"I go downstairs to street, which is filled with frightened men and 
women, some moaning and shrieking, others laughing hysterically. I go 
up to Mission Street, w^here a great fire is in progress. 

"The Valencia Hotel, near Nineteenth and Valencia Streets, has col- 
lapsed, the ground opening and the hotel dropping into the crevice. Four 
stories, containing eighty odd souls. I watch them removing eight dead 



iHA APPENDIX 

bodies. Here is a dr}-eyed little woman who wants me to find out it her 
brotlier was saved. I ask where he slept, and learn tliat he was on the 
first floor. Poor fellow ! He i- crushed to deatli. Anotlier blood-stained, 
tearless woman, assures me tliat her husband is in tlie hospital witli a 
broken shoulder. I saw his body at tlie comer barroom not five minutes 
ago. but I don't tell her so. 

"So I go do\Mitown. Streams of terror-stricken refugees, tliousands 
of tliem. laden with all manner of goods, pouring up Market Stre^ aiming 
for the upper part of tlie city. San Francisco must be wholly rebuilt All 
the business section and tlie manufacturing district is burned to the ground. 
In the residential districts tlie buildings are so twisted tliat they must be 
torn down and rebuilt 

CORPSES FEARFULLY MANGLED. 

"Twenty-six adults and two children lay stretched dead on the g^ass 
at Washington Square, all fearfully mangled, for most of them were killed 
in bed by falling walls. Chief of the Fire Department Sulli\*an was so 
killed. One corpse is laid on tlie grass, and tlie soldier lays his foot, 
wrendied off midway between tlie# ankle and the knee, beside the corpse. 
The soldiers' hands and miifoniis are blood-soaked. One Chinaman has 
tlie top of his head oft*. The buildings across tlie street are being d}nia- 
mited by tlie soldiers, and they go up in a sliower of sparks. 

"See the people flee! Here is a woman, a parrot in one hand, a milli- 
ner's creation in tlie other, followed by her husband, witli a tin teapot and 
a woman's silk dress. He would do better to carry a blanket He will 
need it 

"Battery- Street — here and tliere Is a front wall standing, ready to 
topple over on the mass of debris. I climb over the bricks in the middle 
of the street. My God I How hot it is here! The bricks beneadi scordi 
gny shoes. And there falls a front wall just back where I was a few 
seconds ago. Sometliing must have struck my left shoulder, for it is 
sore and numb. A brick from tlie wall, no doubt Finally I readi Market 
Street, and turn down towards the Ferr}- building, ninning between two 
seething walls of flame, on either side, my face and hands scorciied. my 
feet hot Safes are strewn all around tlie street. 



APPENDIX 3!»0 

"I look at one. Within the ruins are hundreds of snfes. Ivinc^ on the 
burning mass. Electric wires impede my progress, and I stumble and tall 
upon the sharp bricks many times. From Battery to within half a block 
of the Ferr}- not a soul do I see. Xo soldier, no fireman, no policeman 
will enter that furnace. But I must get across the bay with despatches for 
the East. I cross the ferry and bulldoze the operator to forward them ' 
'collect,' for I have not two dollars in change with me. My money is . 
undemeatli the mass of bricks at the house. 

"Never mind. I am alive, and 'in luck' to be here. 

''No trains going through Oakland to San Francisco. They stop in 
Oakland by orders of the military, to keep strangers out of the city. So 
I hoof it tliree miles over the tracks to the Oakland mole, and am one of 
twenty-odd passengers to the city. The sight of the burning city across 
the bay is a grand one. The wildest rumors are current. 

"Arrived at San Francisco. I make my way west along the water 
front, pass through the Latin Quarter, which has been lightly visited by 
the 'quake,' pass through Chinatown, where the 'chinks' are in terrible 
confusion ; climb the hill, and find the beautiful new Faimiount Hotel is 
intact, tlie finest, most costly building in the city. I look down on the 
burning city below, with the business blocks rising high in the air, dyna- 
mited by the soldiers in hopes to prevent tb.e spreading of the flames. 

GRAND. TERRIBLE SIGHT. 

"It is a grandly terrible sight ; worse. I think than war, for here there 
is a nameless dread of something which may happen any moment. Poor, 
old, aged women are seated on their few belongings, with terror in their 
eyes and mutely questioning gaze. One 70-year-oId woman asks in a voice 
scarcelv above a whisper for whiskey, and I had bought a bottle of Scotch 
whiskev in Oakland to bring home. The old lady clutches the bottle 
eagerlv, and I pass on, leaving it with her. Well, the folks at the house 
must sreit some whiskev, if thev want it. I have 'invested' mine. 

"Food is at famine prices. Oranges, two for 2^, cents. A San Mateo 
County milk-man drives along. He wants $5 per can for his milk. A , 
member of the crowd olTers liim a doll.ir per can. He refuses, and in a 
minute the crowd empties his wagon, carr^-Ing off the cans, and he gets 



896 APPENDIX 

no: a penny. Sen*ed him right. Teams charge $S. Sio or $12 :o cany a 
trunk four blocks. The falling ashes from the conflagration cv"»\-er the 
sidewalks. Thieves have been busy throughout the night, and several ha\-c 
been shot dead by the militan*. San Francisco has receiN'ed a terrible 
blow, one which it will not recover from in ten }-ears. To mail this I 
must walk four miles and then cross the bay."* 

STATEMENT BY WELL-KNOWN AUTHORITY. 

The following is ;i s:;.:;:-;::: by :::e ■.ve^-k:::-^:: ::;::hor::y. Frof. 
Edgar L. Larkin: 

Seismic ragings have been familiar since ^ :e historic times. And 
the torn stran of the ancier.: e.ir:h r^.-.r ::v.::e e. ."c-.-re :hat they have 
tossed, warped and wrenched the ever-: c shell, since the external 

euN-elope began. 

The eanh was once a pro.rite sphereoid of white hot liquid. It rotated 
on its axis and this motion caused a bulging out of the liquid all round 
the equator. And at the time the cooling allowed a crust or la\-er of rock 
to solidify, the ring of melted stuff was thirteen miles deep, at least the 
solid band is that deep now. 

But the liquid inside the thin shdl cooled, contracted, shnmk and 
subsided and the rock>- covering settled and cracked into millions of pieces 
and fell into the seething mass below, exactly as would cakes of ice to a 
drained pond. And the process was repeated over and over again during 
an uncounted number of millions of year^ Great tides, causevl by the 
nKK>n. after it had been formed by matter separated from the eanh. movevi 
around the globe, and this tide cracked the shell into numberless cakes 
imtil it became too rigfid to break it further. 

After the earth became firm, and when \\*ater appeared, deposits on 
the ocean floor began. Countless ages expirevl in the deposition of strata. 
Quadrillions of aquatic animals died and contributed skeletons to the fonn- 
ing layers on the bottom of the seas. La\-er after layer appearevl all 
resting on primordial azoic rocks, igneous, without trace of life. 

But the interior kept on losing heat by con\-ection and radiation par- 
tially, but far more escaped intc> space through torn and ragged throats, 
incipient volcanoes. 



APPENDIX r07 

Contractions continued with increased bending;?, cracking and rending 
of the now thickened "egg shell." luirthquakes rapidly increased in num- 
ber and severity. The thicker the crust the greater the intensity of rup- 
ture's. Coohng went on and then an entirely new giant appeared — cheni- 
isni. It could not act until the temperature was low enough. Thus chem- 
isni does not now act in the sun : tliat is, comp<.ninds are not forming, el- 
ements are at such territic heat that they cannot unite. 

But wlien chemical elements formed in the earth's interior, in a cooler 
place, and then separated in a hotter, immense volumes of gas were liber- 
ated with pressures beyond tomparison. These gases made vast numbers 
of volcanoes and numerous earthquakes. And when water reached the 
white hot mass, real and t}-pical earthquvikes and volcanoes appeared in 
colossal power and racked the primeval world. The mass of the earth's 
interior is now white hot. for the craters of \'esuvius and Kilauea. when 
boiling, just before an outburst, are blinding white. 

ACTION OF VOLCANOES. 

I have \\*atched every detail of craters on the nxx^n in the great tele- 
scope in the Lowe Observatory. Some are low. mere gas-escapes, and 
others rise to more than two miles in altitude. The rims, cones and edges 
can be studied at leisure. Rocks, weighing many tons, have been shot up 
from terrestrial cones to great heights. These elevations have been meas- 
ured, and from that the pressure required has been computed, and forces 
in some volcanoes were several thousands of pounds per square inch. 
Cones fall into the caverns formed by the outcast lava at times, and there 
is a beautiful example on the moon. 

The question now arises, did man appear before the earth was ready? 

\\'hat awful energ>' raged throughout cosmic space when suns and 
planets were condensing, and what lightnings played, what roaring of 
thunders, explosions, boilings, kneadings and mixing, and what eons 
were passed in the process. Then appalling turmoil, turbulence and up- 
hea\-al died away. Things grew still more quiet : forces died away, hush 
came on and silence almost. 

Nature was preparing a quiet, still place for the home of man. Finally 
quietude almost complete came on, scarcely a breath, and then man came. 



8?»8 ArpFNPIX 

He is dclic.-itc. iiulccd. a mere creatine of tciiiperaiir.e. A /.cplivr can w ipe 
him out of existence. 

The marvel is that nature ever became quiet and still enough for him 
to step upon the stupendous scene. If th.e sun increases its heat a few de- 
grees, or loses a few. all humanity will expire, and the change in the sun 
would not be great. Positively, a hush is now on the earth or man would 
vanish. Primitive men were sorely disturbed by internal earth convulsions. 
Modem man has ever been harassed. 

And now the appalling disaster at San Francisco will rank with any * 
calamity that has troubled man. Xot only the metropolis, but the lovely 
cities round about, die great Stanford University, that marvel of beauty 
and loveliness — vanished in ruins. Stop one moment and think about the 
w ord ruins. 

I do not like to write about the dead and dying. A shudder is over 
the nation, and pity. It is still the opinion of the writer that Los Angeles 
is not strictly in an earthquake region. The land was placed here by 
water and not by fire. The region is not volcanic. L'nnecessan,- fear 
should not be entertained. True. I am writing this in a high building, that 
was shaken by three faint tremors a few minutes ago. but I have exoeri- 
enced worse up in the observatory. 

We recall some poems which have a pertinent meaning in connection 
with the great catastrophe: 

SAN FRANCISCO. 

Serene. inditYerent to Fate. 
Thou sittest at the Western Gate ; 

Upon thy heights so lately won 
Still slant the banners of the sun ; 

Thou seest the white seas strike their tents, 
O Warder of two Continents! 

And scornful of the peace that flies 
Thv anerv winds an^l sullen skies. 



APPENDIX .;<»« 

Thou drawest all things, small or great, 
To thee, heside the Western Gate. 

lion's whelp, that hidest fast 

In jungle growth of spire and mast. 

1 know thy cunning- and thy greed, 
Thy hard, high lust and wilful deed, 

And all thy glory loves to tell 
Of specious gifts material. 

Drop down. O tieecy Fog. and hide 
Her skeptic sneer, and all her pride! 

Wrap her. O Fog, in gown and hood 
Of her Franciscan Brotherhood. 

Hide nie her faults, her sin and blame; 
With thy gray mantle cloak her shajne! 

So shall she, cowled, sit and pray 
Till morning benrs her sins away. 

Then rise, O fleecy Fog, and raise 
The glory of her coming days ; 

Be as the cloud that flecks the seas 
Above her smok}- argosies. 

When forms familiar shall give place 
To stranger speech and newer face ; 

When all her throes nnd anxious fears 
Lie hushed in the re^-'se r.f years ; 



400 APPENDIX 

Wlien An shall raise and Culture lift 
The sensual joys and meaner thrift. 

And all fulfilled tlie \-ision. we 

^\^lo \\-atch and wait shall never see — 

WTio, in the morning of her race. 
Toiled fair or meanly in our pla 



But. yielding to tlie common lot. 
Lie unrecorded and forgot. 

— From the poems of Bret Harte. 

OUR LADY OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
"Serene, indifferent to Fate." she stands — 

Bare breasted, girt witli sand, and sun caressed ; 

Witli power undiminished, strengtli unguessed 
Till now. though gaping pits and rav'ning brands 
Have scordied her ttmic and have scarred her hands — 

As who should say: "My race is not yet nm. 

My triumph comes when my new days are won. 
Bring bay and laurel I These are my demands." 

So speaks Our Lady of the Golden Gate, 

-\nd we who hear tlie marvel oi her voice 

Smile back and toss her laurel, rose and bay: 
Because serene indifference to Fate 

Breeds strensfth to conquer, power to gr^in a choice. 

That thmsts our night of sorrow into d.iy. 

— J. C. B. Andrews. 

THE STRICKEN CITY. 

Cnished by the earthquake's hea\y car. 

Seared by the flames' destnictive breath. 
Thy friends and lovers we from far 

Hasten to rescue thee from deatli. 



APPENDIX 401 

Hope, stricken city by the sea! 

O'er mountain height and dreary waste, 
The weary miles to succor thee. 

With helpful sympathy we haste. 

Thy woes are ours. Did we appeal 

In need to thee, as now thy call. 
The bonds of brothers, strong as steel. 

Would gladly offer us thine all. 

Take heari ! The future, hath in store 

A grandeur that shall dim the past. 
And. Phoenix like, shall rise once more 

A city nobler than the last. 

— William C. Wheeler. 

A survivor who reached Philadelphia told his ston.- of two days and 
nights of horror in San Francisco: 

"At this moment." he said. "I don't know how exactly to describe my 
sensations. I am as one who has been called back from the g^tes of the 
grave. It all seems so strange to be back here in this quiet old city. It 
was about. 6 o'clock on Tuesday night when we entered the St. Francis 
Hotel in San Francisco and took a room on the eleventh floor. 

"I had been asleep a little more than four hours, when I was awakened 
by a crash as oi thunder, to find myself in the middle of the floor. The 
room was shaking to and fro, or rather rolling from side to side, like the 
movement of a pendulum, gradually slackening as the pendulum does when 
the clock stops. All was still. I heard no sound outside, and at first 
I thought that the shaking might be part of my disordered fancy. 

"Xothing in the room was disturbed. As my senses slowly returned. 
I began to realize that it was an earthquake. Then Mr. Heyl. my traveling 
companion, rushed into my room and an instant later ran out. Somehow, 
after the first shock we did not seem in the least disturbed. I put on my 
clotlies. packed my grripsack and wound up my watch just as usual. Then 
I walked over to the window and looked out. \Miat I saw sent me stag- 
gering against the wall with amazement and fright, for before me houses 
96-^ P. 



402 APPENDIX 

were crumbling. Down in the street, in the Hght of the dawn, a thousand 
faces, with a white terror on them that I shall never forget, were, it 
seemed, looking up into mine. I saw the crowd move onward with a 
swift swirling rush, like a picture impossibly painted on a running river. I 
van out into the corridor. Mr. Heyl was nowhere in sight. 

''The thought came to me of the women who were downstairs. For, 
in telling you this story. I have almost forgotten the women. I made for 
the second floor, where I knew the women were. I noticed as I walked 
down the broken stairs that, while the rooms on the high floors had escaped 
damage, the lower part of the hotel was wrecked. 

"The rooms of the Aumonts were all broken up and empty, and so I 
went into the square and came upon ^Ir. Gill and ]\Ir. Heyl with the ladies. 
^\'e saw the fires breaking out in half a dozen places, and we decided to 
move on. The rest of the crowd, or so it seemed to us, did the game, and 
we were carried northward with the tide, so we were plodding onward, the 
women growing wearier and wearier at every step, when we came upon a 
young, sweet-looking woman, who was crying. She said she was looking 
for an undertaker. Her little brother lay dead at home. He had been 
crushed by a falling chimney. 

TURNED FROM HER OWN GRIEF. 

"Then she turned to us. saying, 'Oh, you poor people, your need is as 
great or greater than mine, so come to our house and we will take care of 
you until the danger is past.' She was a Miss McEwen. Her mother was 
a widow, with three unmarried daughters, and they lived at the foot of 
Xob Hill. They forgot their trouble, the presence of death in their house. 
Their thought was only for us. And our women cried, kissed and cried 
over the little boy, lying as he had been stricken in his sleep. 

"For a whole day we were in that house, sharing what little they had. 
]\Ir. Gill and myself had the forethought to go into the street and gather 
up all the eatables we could buy at famine prices. The order had gone out 
that no fires were to be lighted, and all that we could get was such things 
as biscuits, cheese, pickles and ginger ale. 

"All my own thought at this time was of my wife. I knew that the 
story of the earthquake was in Philadelphia. Twice I fought my way 



APPENDIX 403 

through the streets to the Western Union office, and each time was told 
that the wires were down. All through that Wednesday the fire was grad- 
ually creeping nearer and nearer our part of the city, and the flames were 
already on Nob Hill when we started for the Presidio. That was our ob- 
jective point, the only place that I or any one else thought of at that 
momerkt. 

"We had gone about half way through the city when Mr. Gill sug- 
gested that we make for the ferry. And there it was that we had to s'.iy 
good-by to our good friends the McEwens. In a grave by that deserted 
house they had left the child. They were seeking refuge at the Presidio. 
The last we saw of them they were looking after us, their eyes red with 
crying. 

AT THE FERRY. 

"A great, black, heavy mist was in the air. As we walked along the 
throng seemed to grow bigger and bigger with every step. From time to 
time soldiers would stop us, but they were always as kind as tiiey could 
be and helped us along. As we went we could hear the crash of buildings 
and the reports of the dynamite. Women, from first to last, were wonder- 
fully cool and composed. When we reached the ^leggs Ferry it seemed as 
though all the world had come together, blacks,, whites. Celestials, children 
of the Orient, children of the Occident, heathen and Christian, laborer and 
aristocrat, beggar and millionaire, all brought togrether as they will be on 
the last day. There came up to us a blackened, bedraggled man pushing 
a cart laden high with papers and valuables. His wife and daughters 
trailed behind with, bundles on their heads. Everybody in that crowd recog- 
nized him as one of San Francisco's biggest millionaires. 

"We waited two hours in that crowd before the ferryboat came up. 
I thought that no ferryboat ever built could hold that crowd, until I saw 
the boat which we took. That was as large as some ocean-going steam- 
ships. At Oakland we quickly got a train." 

Another refugee told of his experience: "What I have to tell can be 
told in a very few words," he said. "I was one of a party headed by 
George Kessler. of New York. We went West in ^^lardi : the trip was 
purely a business one and on the way Mr. Lewis, one of the party died. 



404 APPENDIX 

But to come down to the earthquake: I was in the St. Francis with the 
rest and was tumbled out on the floor like the rest. I knew what had 
happened ; decided that lig-htning never struck twice in the same place and 
took my time dressing. I was on the second floor and I really think that 
I was the first man out of the hotel. All the world seemed to be collected 
in Union Square. There was just the sort of rush that you'd expect to 
find at such a time. Yet every one was quiet. The earthquake had scared 
the wits out of them. 

"George Kessler came along presently and said, 'Look here, boys, 
we've all got to keep together.' We saw Pol Plancon in a night shirt, a 
cutaway coat and a silk hat. He was carr>'ing a valise. Finally I went 
back to my room, and soon after we got the second shock. Well, we made 
tracks out again just as quick as we could. A Frenchman had gone to 
the garage and got George's automobile ready. That auto saved our lives. 
The whole party got together and we spun out to the Casino, which is on 
the other side of Golden Gate Park, far away from the Presidio. There we 
remained two nights, having a pretty good time, all things considered, 
though we had to pay $50 for a wagon to fetch some more of our goods 
from the St. Francis. From that point, when it began to get crowded, we 
went on to San Jose, which was in an awful condition, and then we made 
our way to Oakland. That auto was a godsend if ever you saw one. 
George Kessler gave $3500 for it two days before the earthquake. After 
the earthquake he would not have taken $35,000." 

AS A WOMAN SAW IT. 

Mrs. W. E. Aumont, one of the party aided by Mr. Kessler, told about 
the earthquake : "The room rolled like a ship at sea," she said. "The 
lower part of the hotel suffered the most, and our room looked as though 
a cyclone had gone through it. 

"The first instinct of a woman in danger is to rush for the window. 
I did this, and I saw a great throng flocking into the square from all 
directions. We all caught up what clothing we had and got out into the 
square. Then we heard that fire was beginning to eat its way through 
the city, and at the suggestion of Mr. Kessler we made for higher ground. 
On every hand we saw fires. The air was full of thick smoke that choked 



APPENDIX 408 

and blinded us, while the way was blocked by falling buildings. Then, in 
front of the Fairmount Hotel, there came to us a young lady, Miss Jane 
McEwen. She saw perhaps that I was exhausted, for she caught my arm, 
saying: 'Come to my house. You must come, and you will be safe with 
us.' Her mother and sisters were in that house. How in this world can 
I or those dear to me ever forget how those poor women took us in and 
sheltered us all for that day and night until the cruel, merciless fire came 
up and ate their home? I can never forget our parting." 

A startling reminder of the horror of a week before came in the 
afternoon of April 25th, in the shape of another earthquake shock, which 
shook the ruined city from end to end and sent terror to the hearts of the 
people, whose nerves were suffering from an experience which at times 
touched the limit of human endurance. The new shock came at a quarter 
past three and lasted nearly a minute. A number of walls left standing in 
the burned district were shaken down and some damage was done to frail 
structures. The shock was also felt in Oakland and Berkeley, but in 
these places, it was very slight and of brief duration. 

SUFFERED FROM COLD. 

While there was food in plenty for those left destitute by the earth- 
quake and fire, which drove 300,000 from home, the need of proper shelter 
for the refugees in the parks was felt Tuesday night, when the wind blew 
cold and raw across the camp grounds. Thinly clad women and children 
huddled close or walked about all night trying to keep warm. Even those 
in tents or shacks suffered, as the order against building fires was strictly 
enforced. 

Except for the need of blankets and tents conditions were growing 
brighter. The work of the engineers who were dealing with the sanitary 
questions was effective and the health of the city was remarkably good 
under the circumstances. 

The exodus from this city continued, stimulated by the shock of the 
afternoon. All day a constant stream of men, women and children, afoot 
and on every conceivable vehicle, wended their way down Market and 
Mission Streets toward the ferries. A little bundle on a stick carried over 
the shoulders represented all the worldly possessions of some; others held 



406 APPENDIX 

grips and baskets, and a gtttit many had saved trwinks and fumiiurc. It 
was estimated that oo.ooo persons were luniished \v:i:h iretr transponation 
yesterday to the different pans of the State by the Sanu Fe and Southern 
Pacific Railways. 

Between 6 A. M. Wednesday. April iSth, and the following Stmday 
night, the Southern Pacific ran 129 trains with over 900 cars o\-tt- the 
main Hne and local and eastern points. carr>Tng refugees free. During 
the same time 610 suburban trains were nm from the Oakland pier with 
4880 cars. During the same period about fift\- trains with $00 cars were 
run from points between Third and Townsend Streets and Ocean\-iew to 
the south. The number of people carried from San Francisco exceeded 
225.OCO. The \-aliie of the transportation issued free by the Southern 
Pacinc at San Francisco. Oakland. San Jose. Santa Rosa. Sacramento and 
Yallejo had. at a rough estimate, exceeded $400,000. 

PROVISIONS COMING IN. 

Many carloads of pro\-i5ions and supplies were r c ':ve»^-ed daily. 
Fi\-e cars were receive Southern Cali: ^: gs 

3000 blankets, which were immediately distributed at the ir;m<po-r£ docks 
by the mn ^ ^ kets came at an opport- e : "? ^ : vere in- 

signiticant hat are actually require^ 

As a . : Mayor Schmitz's sharp letter to - Kv>5ter, in 

which the Ma>-or called the General's attention to at the city 

was not under martial law and that the drastic measur; .iry ac^ 

tions of some of his men were illegal, there was '-"'e '^ 

trict over which the militia held sway. A marine re. e::ee. , ., ' 

burning in a house on lower Fillmore Street after 10 o'clock at night 
and the mt1itar>- sentry on the pO(St shot through the viindow. A looter 
who. it \N-as said, broke into several! places on Yallejo Street wa? -: 
to have been shot by a marine sentry at Yallejo and East S:~: "- 

Se\-eral bullets fired from the water front strtick a Re J 
in which Dr. Diggins. of the Emergenoi- Hospital serrice, A\*as going from 
the Pc»trero district to the Presidia The shooting was done while the 
launch \N-a$ off the ferry depot. None of the occupants was injured. The 
fact that two companies of the Fourteenth United States Infantry, from 



APrt^'.MX 407 

\'ancouver, went to OakUitiu on Tuesday to do g:uard duty in that ciy. 
indicated that the militia would be recalled. 

"All's well !" were the words that went down the line at police head- 
quarters when the otiicers had tinished their long: night vigil through the 
burned districts and reported otY duty to their captains to-day. 

■'From the reports of officers filed." said Chief of Police Dinan, "there 
is every indication that San Francisco has settled down to almost a nomial 
condition. Our officers are everywhere as usual, but petty thievery has 
kept the upper office men of the department busy. 

"The one perplexing problem that we now have to contend with is tiie 
prevention of an unequal distribution of food. Those of the worst element 
of the city, we find, are living better than they ever did in their lives, while 
the unfortunates who have never been accustomed to ask for aid are actu- 
ally suffering. We are doing all in our power to relieve this condition, 
and hope, in a few da>'S, to get rid of those who are taking everything in 



sight." 



TO GUARD AGAINST FRAUD 

Beginning on Thursday kitchens and mess rooms were established. 
where meals were supplied to all who applied, and the distribution of food 
to be carried away was discontinued. 

In the distribution of clothing precautions against fraud were taken 
by squads detailed to visit eacli tent and tabulate the wants. Orders were 
given out entitling the holders to the needed clothing, bedding or otlier 

stores. 

At one of the parks Wednesday morning a handsomely dressed woman 
with two children at her skirts stood in a line of many hundreds where 
supplies were being given out. She took some uncooked bacon, and as 
she reached for it jewels sparkled on her fingers. One of the tots took a 
can of condensed milk, the other a bag of cakes. 

"I have monev." she said, ""if I could get it and use it. I have prop- 
erty, if I could realize on it. I have friends, if I could get to them. Mean- 
time I am going to cook this piece of bacon on bricks and be happy." She 
was onlv one of thousands like her. 

In a walk through the city this note of cheerfulness of the people in 



408 APPENDIX 

the face of an almost incredible week of horror was to a correspondent the 
mitigating element to the awfulness of disaster. In the streets of the 
residential district in the western addition, which the fire did not reach, 
women of the houses were cooking meals on the pavement. In most cases 
they had moved out the family ranges, and were prq>aring the food which 
the\' secured from the Relief Committee. 

FORGOT MISERY IN SONG. 

At night out on Broderick Street, hear the Panhandle, a piano sounded. 
It was nigh lo o'clock and the stars were shining after the rain. Fires 
gleamed up and down through the shrubbery and the refugees sat huddled 
together about the flames, with their blankets about their heads, Apache- 
like, in an effort to dry out after the wetting of the afternoon. The piano, 
dripping with moisture, stood on the curb, near the front of a cottage, 
which had been wrecked by the earthquake. A youth with a shock of red 
hair sat on a cracker box and pecked at the ivories. "Home x\in't Nothing 
Like This" was thrummed from the rusting wires with true vaudeville 
dash and syncopation. "Bill Bailey," "Good Old Summer Time," "Dixie" 
and "In Toyland" followed. Three young men with handkerchiefs 
wrapped about their throats in lieu of collars stood near the pianist and 
lifted up their voices in melody. The harmony was execrable, the time 
without excuse, but the songs rang through the trees of the Panhandle 
and the crowds, forgetting their misery for a time, joined the strange 
chorus. 

They tell a tale of comedy — how on the morning of the fire a richly 
dressed woman who lived in one of the aristocratic Sutter Street apartments 
came hurrying down the street, faultlessly gowned as to silks and sables, 
save that one dainty foot was shod with a high-heeled French slipper and 
the other was incased in a laborer's brogan. They say that as she walked 
the beauty careened to leeward like a bark-rigged ship before a typhoon. 

An hour spent behind the counter of the food supply depot in the 
park tennis court yielded rich reward to the seeker after the outlandish. 
The tennis court was piled high with the plunder of several grocery stores 
and the cargoes of many relief cars. A square cut in the wire screen 
permitted of the insertion of a counter, behi'nd which stand members of the 



APPENDIX 40V 

militia acting as food dispensers. Before the improvised window passed 
the line of refugees, a line which stretched back fully 300 yards to Speed- 
way track. 

'*I want a can of condensed cream, so I can feed my baby and my 
dog," says a large, florid-faced woman in a gaudy kimono, "and I don't 
care for crackers, but you can throw in some potted chicken if you have it." 

"What's in the bottles over there?" queries the next applicant. "To- 
mato ketchup? Well, of all the luck! Say, young man, just give me 
three." 

A little gray-haired woman in an Indian shawl peers timorously 
through the window. "J^st a little of anything you may have handy, 
please," she whispered, and she cast a careful eye about to see if any of 
her neighbors recognized her standing there in the "bread line" where food 
w-as given away, not sold. Her pride pinched almost as hard as her hunger, 
but the keener spur was the stronger. 

WANTED SOME OLIVES. 

Even the weary National Guardsmen who dispensed food from this 
wicket the whole day through found odd cases of absolute perversity in 
them at times. Said a seargeant of the signal corps: "This morning a 
lady with diamonds in her ears asked if we could send to the Presidio 
camp for some green olives, and another woman said if we could not give 
her any better food she would not eat our stuff. And she made good on 
her threat all right. She went away without anything." 

The "bread line" was not the only rich field for comedy. \\'here the 
tent dwellers did the family cooking there laughter in "cap and bells" sat 
enthroned. One young householder who had known until recently the 
dignity of a stool in a railroad office and $75 a month, knelt gingerly on 
two pieces of paper spread upon the damp ground and blew into his brick 
furnace with the wrath of Boreas, with the result that his fountain pen 
dropped out of his waistcoat pocket into the coals, exploded and tattooed 
his countenace with beautiful designs in violet. 

Mrs. Rudolph Spreckels, wife of the well-known financier, presented 
her husband with an heir on the lawn in front of their mansion on Friday 
when the family were awaiting the coming of the dynamite squad to blow 



no APPENDIX 

up their magnincenr residence. An Irish woman who had been called in to 
play the part of midwife at a birth on Saturday, made a pertinent comment 
after the wee one's eyes were opened to tlie walls of its tent home. 

"God send earthquakes and babies," she said, "but He might, in His 
mercy, cut out sending them both together." 

The follcrwing telegram was received to-day from President Roose- 
velt by James D. Phelan, chairman of the Finance Committee : 

'The Finance Committee can use the United States Mint at San 
Francisco as a depositor}- for relief funds until the sub-treasur\' opens, and 
thereafter can use the sub-treasur}- until the banks open. They could 
withdraw funds from the depositories in sums not less than Siooo. as the 
Government offices in San Francisco are not equipped to do banking 
business. Please consult as to details of arrangements the superintendent 
of the mint at San Francisco. Secretar}- Shaw will immediately wire suit- 
able instructions to the superintendent of the mint and the assistant treas- 
urer. Authority is specially given to the Secretary of War to disburse 
the congressional appropriation, amounting altogether to $2,500,000." 

THE FIRE DEPARTMENT LOSSES. 

The losses of the San Francisco Fire Department during the earth- 
quake and fire were made known. As far as known three firemen were 
killed and one injured. The apparatus of the department, while damaged, 
was still intact. X'ineteen companies, however, were put out of commission, 
and many of them were disbanded. Excluding the dead and injured, there 
were about 100 members of the department missing. It was believed, how- 
ever, that these men had been separated from their companies and would 
rejoin them soon. 

The Commissioners were equipping the department for the protection 
of the unburned portion of the city. The alarm system was wrecked. In 
the meantime men were detailed to patrol near the firehouses and, at 
the first indication of fire the engines were turned out. The department 
was still handicapped for water. 

An idea of the task which confronted the Food Committee may be 
gained from the fact that throughout the city rations for 349.440 persons 
were distributed on Tuesday. This was an average estimate based on re- 



APPENDIX 411 

ports from a few of the food depots. At one point provisions were given 

out of 6/2 persons an hour for ten hours. All flour that was received in 
sacks was exchanged at the bakeries pound for pound for bread. Almost 
all the bakeries in the unburned regions opened and were selling bread 
at 5 cents a loaf. 

There was no danger of a meat famine. Representatives of the West- 
ern Meat Company in South San Francisco reported to the Relief Com- 
mittee that there were 1500 cattle, 3000 sheep and 500 hogs on hand. 
More than 200 cattle were killed and dressed daily and sheep and hogs 
were put under the knife as fast as they arrived. The full quota of 
employees was at work. 

The Southern Pacific ordered all cattle cars to be rushed to San 
Francisco with precedence over passenger trains. Some stories of suffer- 
ing from exposure, ignorance and helplessness weretcoming to the Relief 
Committee. Of the great refuge camps that in the Presidio, which was 
under Government control, seemed most thoroughly systematized and that 
in Golden Gate Park most disorganized, although it was rapidly assuming 
a habitable basis. 

FRUIT DISTRIBUTED. 

Many .tons of fresh fruit were distributed Tuesday and Wednesday. 
Bunches of bananas and boxes of oranges were given unsparingly to the 
people who flocked from the tents along the beach and about Fort Mason. 
The oranges had been shipped to San Francisco for commission merchants 
before the earthquake. They had not been unloaded from the warehouses 
and cars, and escaped destruction to a large degree. 

The surgeon in charge of the general hospital at the Presidio said 
that his force was perfectly organized, and that seventy-five members of 
the army nurse corps came from Chicago. They were divided among the 
Presidio and the emergency hospitals of the city. 

An official list of the condition of the school buildings throughout 
the city showed that twenty-nine buildings were utterh destroyed and 
that forty- four were at least partly spared. As many of the latter were 
so damaged that they would have to be either pulled down or thoroughly 



412 APPENDIX 

repaired, it was probable that the resumption of the short term would be 

made in tents erected in the parks. 

With unwavering faith in an image, twenty Chinese gathered in a 
desolate spot in the ruins of Chinatown one afternoon and worshipped in 
full compliance with the rites of their religion. In the ashes of their 
temple they knelt and silently offered prayers. Prostrate in the smoulder- 
ing wreckage before them was the charred trunk of an image that once 
held the altar in the temple of Shai Tai. The fumes of fresh incense and 
sacred punks sailed skyward. All the dainties obtainable under the circum- 
stances were spread in propitiatory offering to the devil that no offense to 
that personage might bring a recurrence of the disaster. 

GENERAL GREELY'S MESSAGE. 

General Greely sent the following message to the Acting Secretary of 
War : 

"Three hundred thousand people are homeless and the entire busines.^^ 
facilities of a city of half a million have been destroyed, except those of one 
street of minor importance ; accommodations for most urgent financial aiJ<^^ 
other indispensable business institutions are being obtained only with the 
greatest difficulty. The entire body of those men are naturally devotine 
their energies to restoring their own affairs, and even those who have ap- 
plied themselves devotedly to relief and rescue work the past week are 
gradually withdrawing therefrom, stating correctly that domestic and busi- 
ness affairs demand their entire attention. 

"The Mayor and the police are so fully occupied operating without 
ordinary accommodations that even the ordinary current duties, such as 
pertain to the Coroner's office and vital statistics, are largely neglected for 
lack of force and office accommodations. Under such conditions a regis- 
tration bureau is impossible. The newspapers have taken up the matter 
as far as possible with their own limited accommodation, and it is under- 
stood that a kind of registration bureau has been opened in Oakland. Can 
only suggest that interested parties telegraph the Examiner, the Coll and 
Chronicle, who at present are best informed as to the location of prominent 
individuals. 



APPENDIX 418 

"To appreciate this situation it is to be borne in mind that San 
Francisco covers twenty-five square miles, and that all street car lines and 
usual methods of local transportation are still unavailable and inoperative. 

"There is no telegraph system within the city except that constructed 
by the signal corps, nor does any telephone service exist beyond the military 
system connecting these headquarters with the mint, post-office, various 
district headquarters and other points of great public importance. 

"Even the present military systems are being continually broken by 
parties engaged in repair and rescue operations. Under these conditions, 
no part of the city can be reached save by a messenger on foot, which 
entails hours, or by automobiles, of which there are few. 

"I have gone fully into the situation to prevent misapprehension and 
to enable the War Department to disclose the situation to the public. It 
should be added that the names of dead have already been furnished the 
Department, and if desired the names of every injured person in hospital 
will be similarly transmitted. To relieve public apprehension, it should 
be clearly understood that beyond isolated cases already reported there are 
no deaths or serious injuries of guests of any well-known hotel in San 
Francisco. 

NO DEMAND FOR NURSES OR DOCTORS. 

"It should be also understood that there is no demand for nurses or 
doctors. The medical, civil and military will be able to handle the entire 
situation unless unexpectedly adverse conditions arise. The hospital 
corps force sent here will be utilized more for sanitary purposes and 
preventive measures than for the cure of any great body of sick, of which 
none exist." 

A wave of business activity was shown and preparations for resump- 
tion in all sorts of trade were in evidence everywhere. Many more retail 
merchants opened their stores, some at the old stands, others in temporary 
quarters, but each one with a cheerful determination which characterized 
the attitude of all who were planning the city's restoration. 

There was especial activity among banking interests. Over in Oak- 
land the majority of the banks reopened and announced themselves ready 
for business. There was no run and no excitement at any of these institu- 



414 APPENDIX 

tions. The remarkable feature of the day's business at some of the banks 
was that more money was deposited than was withdrawn, indicating a 
feehng of confidence which was cheering to business interests. 

Among the local institutions plans were formed for a speedy resump- 
tion, "Bankers' Row" was organized on La Guna Street, west of Lafay- 
ette Square. The Crocker-Woolworth National Bank, the Central Trust 
Company and the Mercantile Trust Company placed their cotton banners 
on residences overlooking the tented camps of the refugees in the square. 
The clearing house, representing the commercial banks, held their usual 
meeting. While the details were not completed, it was arranged to pay 
depositors not exceeding $500 on their accounts. Each of the banks had 
large sums transferred to its credit by correspondents in London, Paris and 
New York. These transfers were made to the Mint, on Fifth Street, and 
the money was available at that point. 

WAITING FOR VAULTS TO COOL. 

The bankers were waiting for the cooling of their vaults so that they 
might open them and reach their books and papers. The Executive Com- 
mittee of the savings banks also met. Much satisfaction was expressed 
at the fact that all the vaults of these banks had been found to be in 
excellent condition. 

The embargo against travel into the city was raised on April 26th, 
and as a result thousands who had fled the town during the disaster re- 
turned to visit the scene of their former homes or business places. An offi- 
cial estimate was that San Francisco had lost, temporarily at least, about 
200,000 of her population. The estimate was probably very much too 
small. The San Franciscans who were in deadly earnest contended that 
a large percentage of those who left would return soon, and that they did 
not want the others. The tide of exodus slackened considerably. A promi- 
nent city officer said : 

"There will be more work in San Francisco this year than there are 
people in all California to do it." 

Parts of the city, on the outskirts of the ruins and in the unburned 
section, resembled a boom town on the frontier. There was talk of real 
estate deals, temporary offices of all kinds were erected and improvised, 



APPENDIA 4W 

and plans were made for active business operations at once. The Stars 
and Stripes were hoisted over one tall building that stood surrounded t)y 
ruins. 

One of the most encouraging reports with reference to the work of 
rebuilding the burned district was that of the San Francisco Planing Mill 
Owners' Association. Fifteen of the thirty-nine mills escaped the fire 
and two of them were now in operation. The Lumber Dealers' Association 
estimated that there were 70,000,000 feet of lumber on hand or en route 
to the city, and also available large stores of timber near by. It was agreed 
that there would be no immediate rise in the prices of the material owing 
to shortage. 

Three of the handsomest buildings in the business district were to 
be restored as soon as men and material could be secured. The first of 
these buildings is the St. Francis Hotel, the second is the Crocker Building 
and the third is the Shrove Building. All these structures were, gutted 
from cellar to roof by the fire, but unharmed by the earthquake. Their 
reconstruction would consist of naturally nothing but a replacing of floors, 
partitions and fittings. 

SANTA FE TO RUSH WORK. 

President E. P. Ripley, of the Santa Fe Railroad, gave instructions 
to immediately spend the $300,000 recently set aside for the completion 
of the company's China basin terminal. During the past two years the 
Santa Fe spent more than $2,000,000 in filling in the basin and preparing 
it for tracks and freight warehouses. The $300,000 mentioned was to 
be used for building these tracks and warehouses, and thus put the terminal 
in shape to use within the next sixty days. The earthquake and fire did 
not damage the terminal, and the Santa Fe people expected there would be 
a pressing use for their new terminal in the near future for the handling 
of cars laden wnth material intended for the rebuilding of San Francisco. 

For the first time since the earthquake street lights were burning in 
San Francisco on the night of the 26th. The lighting company had been 
hard at work for several days with a large force, installing a system of arc 
lights on three different routes. Restoration of the telephone system was 
making good headway. Forty telephones were in operation, but the dyna- 



•416 APPENDIX 

miting of walls temporarily put some of them out of commission again. 
The clearing of the streets continued, and large quantities of debris were 
being hauled away from the business district. 

The Oakland Tribune said : 

"An engineer states that the area devastated by fire in San Francisco 
approximates 10,000 acres, or about fifteen square miles. There are few 
cities in the world where so much valuable property is contained in an 
equal territory. Within this fifteen square miles were nearly 100 banks, 
some of the finest buildings in the world, thousands of merchants and 
manufacturing establishments. 

"Notwithstanding the enormous and widespread destruction, the 
homes of 150,000 people are still standing and virtually uninjured. There 
still remains the great shipyards at the Potrero, the Pacific Mail docks, the 
stockyards at South San Francisco, the docks and manufactories along the 
water ftont from Mission Creek to Hunter's Point, the Mint, the postofBces 
and a large district on Fillmore and Devisadero Streets." 



NOTICE 

♦While the last page of the text in this volume shows 
page 416. the complete books contain about 500 pages. 
The large number of beautiful full page pictures which 
are not Included in the numbering of the pages form a 
magnificent and very necessary part of this book, and 
bring the number up to about 500 pages. 



MAY 22 1b«t) 




r^ 






^--^ 






l\ A" 



'ii 



<n: 






'^' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



